Dunellen Fire Dept Old #1 1934 Ward LaFrance - Fred 'Dutch' Heilich III
- Fred Heilich
- Apr 7
- 4 min read
This blog is not only a tribute to DFD #1, 1934 Ward La France firetruck, but to my father and his contemporaries of the Dunellen Fire Dept that I met at an early age up and through 1980s and to my contemporaries I was a member with at the Dunellen Fire Dept until I moved from Dunellen.
My father Fred 'Dutch' Heilich Jr was a lifelong member of the Dunellen Fire Department and the treasurer for some 42+ years. I was a Dunellen Jr Fireman and regular member until I went into the Air Force, 2 weeks after graduating from Rutgers in1967. I was also a Callman in the North Plainfield Fire Dept and volunteer in the North Branch Fire Dept for a total of 28 years. I earned my exemption from time served in the Dunellen Fire Dept, credit for military service, and finally time in service at North Plainfield Fire Dept.
My earliest memories of #1 were in the late 1940s when it was housed in a small garage on S. Prospect Ave adjacent to the railroad tracks. The engine was housed there to have a fire truck on the south side of town should the crossings be blocked by a train before the grade separation in the 1953-1955 timeframe. There were several firemen on that side of town to answer the initial call on the south side.
As this building had a pretty good lip from the ramp into the firehouse, the drivers were trained not to stop at the lip and try to start up to get in as there was a fear of snapping an axle or the differential when it started up.
As I got older, I remember that Bill Day was #1's de facto guardian and did the easy maintenance on it there. The heavier servicing was handled by Freddie Muller and his mechanic at the old Tri-Angle Garage on Madison Ave. His mechanic, I believe was named Oscar, would really get on it going down North Ave.
The first major repairs done to it by Bill Day, that I recall, was to rebuild the engine after it spun a bearing at a fire at Allied Asphalt. After the bearing work was done, he reassembled the engine on the floor until it was hoisted into the frame for completion.
I remember that Ralph T Lee was the one member who drove it quite often. I believe Bill Hill and Jim Fisher were two others. My first out of town fire as a Junior Fireman was to a field fire New Market back around Randolphville Rd. It was an experience as I rode on the running board on the driver's side with Ralph T. Lee driving.
The engine required another rebuild after the move to the new firehouse. Again, Bill Day worked on it to get it back in service.
The engine had dual ignition - Battery-Magneto, Battery, and Magneto selected by a switch on the dash. If you ran it in either Battery or Mag you would instantly notice the difference in sound when you put it in Battery-Mag and it was firing on both sets of plugs.
In the mid 1960s when 2 new trucks arrived (pumper and 85 ft aerial), it wasn't used that often except for emergencies or for pumping basements, and local parades. Photos of it pumping out 2 basements on north Washington Ave after the Aug 3rd, 1973, flash flood is included here and for pumping sewage at the Bound Brook Rd pump station if the pump went down.
As its protector Bill Day, didn't like the younger guys driving it due to weak brakes of the time and the rear axles and differential. The last fire I took it to was at Fisher Castings on South Ave as #3 wouldn't start. After we returned to the firehouse, Bill had some strong words with me about taking it out. Later he relented on me taking it out for infrequent Saturday runs to keep the battery charged up as he knew I would be easy with it as I had a 1931 Hudson (still have it) and a 1926 Graham Bros truck. Since I was careful with them and knew how to shift the old non-synchromesh transmission, he felt better.
At some point after I moved to North Branch, it had engine problems again and was sent out to have a Diesel replace the original engine. In hindsight they should have gotten the original engine back but didn't. This made #1 more dependable for parades. When I returned to Dunellen from out-of-state for a class reunion, I stopped by to see #1 as there was a group at the firehouse. I was told it was on jacks as the differential had failed and they were going to swap out the rearend as the old gears couldn't be repaired and were lost be the shop who was to do the work.
I haven't seen Old #1 in person since then. There were several photos of it being loaded on a drop bed car carrier to go for repairs after the firehouse fire . I understand that it's still being repaired.
I'll always remember the sound of the engine under load and the buckeye whistle (wolf whistle) held open going to fires and used carefully in parades.
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