For fire engine connoisseurs in Pennsylvania and beyond, Downingtown is auctioning off a very nice looking yellow one from 1998 that has 28,558 miles on it. It’s shiny, painted with “Engine 45″ on the side, and looks quite plausible as a firefighting vehicle.
Bids are past $11,000, and the auction ends Sept. 26. Proceeds from the sale go to the borough.
Jack Law, the chief of the Downingtown Fire Department, said the borough replaces its engines roughly every 20 years, and this one was overdue.
The department bought two new Pierce engines — “twins” as he referred to them — earlier this year.
But it turns out that fire trucks are in great demand and generally hard to get. Downingtown ordered the new engines in 2022 for $679,000 apiece, with a 2½-year delivery window, Law said. Downingtown officials traveled to Appleton, Wis., last December for a final inspection.
Today those Pierce twins would cost roughly $1.2 million each, with a three- to four-year delivery time, he said.
So the old yellow engine — a Spartan/RD Murray Pumper, with a 700-gallon tank — is a bit of a steal. Bids started at $5,000.
As for the color, at some point in the ’60s, Downingtown’s Alert Fire Co. started painting its engines yellow instead of red, probably for visibility, Law said. A red Downingtown Minquas Fire Co. truck from 1994 — a Spartan/Saulsbury Pumper — is also up for auction.
The engines probably cost around $200,000 when initially purchased in the ‘90s, Law estimated. He hoped that volunteer fire companies in the area might be interested — or collectors.
“I’m happy to be able to replace them,” Law said. But, he added, “I don’t want to say that there’s no sentimental value there.”