Drive aims to bring home Bend’s first fire engine

Bend’s very first fire truck may be making its way home this summer.

Bend fire officials and Deschutes County Historical Society members found the city’s first fire truck about 10 years ago, and they’ve been trying to bring it back ever since.

It’s a 1919 American La France fire engine that began its service in Bend in 1919.

The truck currently belongs to the Poulsbo Fire Department in Washington state.

Bend fire Capt. Scott Wyman said it will cost about $13,000 to get it back, and so far the group has raised about half the costs from fundraisers and grants.

“It’s in really good condition, in the community it’s in now up in Washington. It’s in parades, they’ve fixed it up to where it’s in good working condition,” Wyman said.

Wyman believes the truck was in service in Bend until about the 1940s.

He estimates the truck could hold between 200 and 400 gallons of water. The department’s current trucks hold about 750 gallons.

You can help the Bend Fire Historical Society bring the engine home.

There is a golf scramble fund-raising tournament on the 28th at the Broken Top club, called the Broken Top Fireman Scramble.

For more information, including details on tickets, or other ways to donate, visit bendfirehistory.org.

Wyman said they hope to get it back in time for the Fourth of July parade, and eventually want to display it in a special fire history museum.