1927 American LaFrance Fire Truck

One of the oldest fire equipment maker in the U.S. was the American LaFrance Fire Engine Company founded in 1903 in Elmira New York. Interestingly enough, this company also built roadster automobiles starting in 1907 until 1914. The story here is that American LaFrance built only twenty-two automobiles. The company’s very first motorized fire truck was manufactured in 1907.

The 1927 American LaFrance Fire Engine Pumper truck shown in this article is just one of the decades of fire trucks they manufactured. There are a large number of old fire trucks from American LaFrance on display throughout the country.

Two interesting side notes are that American LaFrance built some steam powered fire engines during the first decade of the 1900’s and unveiled their first six cylinder internal combustion engine in 1911.

The 1927 American LaFrance Fire Pumper Truck

The 1927 American LaFrance pumper featured here is among the most popular series that the company produced. The truck came with a six cylinder engine delivering 130 horsepower. The truck was also equipped with a 750 gallons per minute pump. The truck also had dual chain drives and weighed in the neighborhood of 12,000 lbs.

This 1927 American LaFrance Type 75 Fire Truck would have sold new in that year for about $6,000.

American La France Grows With Acquisitions

The very beginnings of American LaFrance go all the way back to 1832 when hand operated and horse drawn fire fighting equipment was manufactured. This type of fire equipment building in the early 1800’s typically was performed at blacksmith shops. Prior to Truckson LaFrance and partners forming their company, LaFrance Manufacturing Company in 1873, there were several earlier companies that would go on to eventually form the American LaFrance that we know as the twentieth century fire truck builder. This was the company that would go on to build a variety of fire truck equipment such as ladder trucks, airport crash truck equipment, chemical engines and snorkel trucks. By the mid 1920’s American LaFrance had produced over 4,000 fire trucks.