A Brief History of D.F.D.Fire Trucks and Other EquipmentThe history of the Digby Fire Department goes back even before I joined. The first pump I have heard of was a hand drawn pump, which would have been driven by muscle power. The next one was a steamer, built in Yarmouth. The water for this horse drawn pump was held in two cisterns located in the North and South ends of town. Near the end of the eighteen hundreds the town put in a water system, gravity fed from VanTassell Lake. Then for some reason the Town thought that because they had a water system, they no longer needed a pumper, so they sold it to Granville, NB for what was reported to be a very cheap price. In New Brunswick they hooked it up to a hydrant and reported that this new pumper was in perfect shape and the men had trouble holding the hose as it was so powerful. The next fire truck was built on a studibaker chassis by I think it was Gordon Mounts Great Grandfather. The only picture I have ever seen of this truck is upstairs in the firehall, a front on view with the firefighters taken in 1933 or 34. I have never heard what happened to that truck. The next pumper bought by the town was a 34 Bickle which was still the "first truck out" when I joined the Department in 1960. The Town bought another pumper in 1950. It was built by Seagrave in Woodstock, Ontario, and had a 650 GPM American Marsh two stage pump. The Mayor- Victor Cardoza, Fire Chief George Humphry, and Fire Department President Reg Turnbull went to Woodstock to pick up this truck. However, it was coveted so by the hierarchy of the Fire Department that only Reg Turnbull and once in a while Godfrey Griffiths ever got to drive the truck. Thus the men continued to rely on old No. 1.The Fire Department bought a small Ford chassis from Jack Gillespie in 1960 and Robbie's father, Bob Morgan designed a body for it. This body was built down the shore.The Fire Department bought their first pumper in 1963. It was 650 gpm Seagrave and had the first revolving light ever on our fire apparatus. Now old No. 1 had to step down. We had her fixed up and painted and we gave Don (Boob) McNutt a case of beer to paint the name back on her and change the number from 1 to 4. As he was painting he said to me that every time he saw that truck he thought of Wilbur VanTassell, the fireman who always drove the truck. He said it should have his name on it. So I told him to go ahead and paint it on, if anyone said anything we could just paint it out. So No. 1 became Wilbur and went into permanent semi-retirement. We were at that time going out of town, having reached an agreement with the Municipality but we had no tanker. We were given a tank by Imperial Oil and we bought the chassis it was on from Earl VanTasell, the Imperial Oil dealer. This thing was in hard shape. Fred Smith and Wart Thomas worked on it all winter in the garage down on the South end. In the Spring Fred painted it with donated paint, we put new tires on it and Digby had its first tanker. A few years later we bought a portable tank. That tank was a joke (swimming pool, etc…) until we used it the first time at a fire on Digby Neck. That system worked well and we never heard a joke about the swimming pool again. In 1974, the town bought a pumper. The chassis was purchased in Lawrencetown and the pumper an 840GPM was built by King-Seagrave. Then we bought a new chassis for the tanker from McDonald Motors in Digby. That is No. 5.The Fire Department built our present hall which opened in 1976. We bought another Pumper in 1979. An International with a King Seagrave 840 pump. Then in 1985 we bought No. 7, an 840GPM Thibualt to which we later installed Class A foam. In 1988 we had our heavy rescue built by Lantz in Port Willaims. The Department also bought a new van and spent $14,000 to convert it to an ambulance. This was the second van the Department bought, the first one being in 1976. The Fire Department had also bought numerous BA's, two high pressure compresses and the big generator for emergency power. We spent $76,000 on air cleaning and air conditioning for the top floor. And to bring this tale up to date, the Town bought a new pumper with compressed air foam in 1998 and the Fire Department bought a pumper/tanker in 1999.Vaughan VanTassell, Chief