City reunites with 1931 fire engine after museum’s closure
By Kayla Moeller
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YUBA CITY, California (KOVR) — A nearly century-old fire engine is back where it first went into service: Yuba City.
After being taken out of service by the Yuba City Fire Department in the 1970s, the 1931 engine continued to live many lives, even being used as a display at a restaurant.
It was living at the Sacramento Regional Fire Museum when they were forced to close their doors due to rising rent. Now, the engine is back where it started.
“We got a call from Sacramento, asking if we’d like to have our fire engine back,” said Yuba City Fire Captain Kevin Kennedy.
The fire engine can still be driven.
“A couple of our guys actually remembered it from when they were here back in the 60s,” Captain Kennedy said.
One of those guys was retired Yuba City Fire Chief William Burke.
“I was born in 1923, so the fire truck and me are almost the same age,” Burke said.
Burke was on duty in the ’60s. He said, by then, the engine was used as more of a backup, but he remembers it well.
“It did its job for the city for many, many years,” he said. “I was surprised because I thought it was completely gone.”
Most of the engine is original, and anything restored was built using the same vintage parts. Yuba City Fire plans to use it for parades.
“Someone did a lot of work on that, fixed it up and now it probably looks even better than when we took it out of service,” Burke said.
The engine will make its return debut at the Yuba City Children’s 4th of July Parade on Plumas Street, where it all began.
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