While it won't be called out to fires, the 1959 Elcombe Fire Truck will once again serve the public after a detailed and time-consuming restoration project.
The Windsor Firefighters Association unveiled the renovated antique on Wednesday morning at 401 Trucksource on County Road 46.
The almost century-old fire truck needed more than a shiny coat of paint. The Windsor Firefighter's Association and Trucksource completely refurbished it.
The Association bought the antique from the City of Windsor in 2016, put together the financing, and partnered with Trucksource on a years-long project to restore the longest-serving piece of apparatus in Windsor Fire and Rescue's history.
The fire truck's life started 96 years ago when the Walkerville Fire Department put its first motor-driven pumper into service.
After departments in Walkerville, Sandwich, and East Windsor amalgamated into the Windsor Fire Department in 1935, the pumper found a new home at the fire station on Pitt Street East.
Fire officials renamed it Engine No. 7.
By 1958, the pumper was showing its age and the fire chief at the time fought the city council of the day to allow him to replace it and three other trucks. Instead, councillors voted to save money by hiring Elcombe Engineering Ltd. to rebuild and modernize the vehicles. It finished the work on just one of those pumpers, Engine No. 7.
By 2016, the Elcombe Fire Engine, as it became known, was believed to be at the end of its useful life. It had suffered engine damage, and the department could no longer afford the repairs.
Instead of attending fire calls, Windsor residents will see the restored Engine in parades and during funeral processions for fallen firefighters.