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THE HALL Off FLAME

Fire Engines from around the World Make This Museum a Four-alarm Attraction

TEXT BY JAN CLEERE PHOTOGRAPHS BY DAVID H. SMITH

The young boy rushes up one aisle and down another, impatient to see every fire engine, every piece of equipment in the Hall of Flame Museum of Firefighting, the world's largest collection of fire-fighting memorabilia.

With his mother in hot pursuit, the lad stares wide-eyed at the wondrous machines that make up the massive 50,000square-foot collection. Red, green, brown, white, the meticulously decorated fire trucks dance before his eyes. He's dazzled.

And that's just what George F. Getz Jr. envisioned when he founded the museum in Phoenix's Papago Park more than two decades ago. Getz was a Scottsdale busiFireman whose interest in fire engines began when he unexpectedly received one as a birthday gift from his wife. Intrigued, he began to acquire others, purchasing them or receiving them as donations. Ultimately, this became more than a large-scale hobby. Getz opened the museum in 1974, displaying and preserving his collection of fire equipment from around the world, and emphasizing fire safety for children and adults. Getz died in 1992 at the age of 83, but his museum remains a poignant memorial to his love of fire equipment and the men and women who risk their lives to douse nature's fiery temper.

Exploring the maze of exhibits more than 130 vehicles and countless pieces of equipment, some dating back 300 years brings out the curious child in everyone. Myself, as well. As I eagerly follow the boy and his mother through the first hall of engines, I encounter the oldest machine in Getz' collection. The hand-drawn English Newsham, built in 1725, boasts a engine's age. Despite the engine's unsophisticated technology, its crew of 20 men could pump a whopping 90 gallons of water per minute onto a fire. How difficult to imagine a fire engine without that sleek layering of red paint. Over the centuries, red has been designated the color of warning for emergency vehicles. But other colors can be found, too. Just ask Don Hale, the museum's reStorer for more than 20 years. Hale and his volunteer crew refinish, recondition, and repair vehicles donated from across the country.

Around the corner from the Newsham, and vividly contradicting the red fire engine image, the Studebaker "Pung" sports a coat of rich dark brown. Used to plow through the winter snows of Michigan in the late 1800s, fire fighters clinging to its sides, the Pung looked like an old farm wagon with two seats in front and a wide flat bed to hold fire hoses and anyone brave enough to hang on. Lanterns on each side of the seat swayed with the motion of galloping horses as the men cautiously maneuvered through huge snowdrifts.

One of the first aerial trucks, built in the late 1800s by the Chicago Fire Extinguisher Company to protect the skyscrapers beginning to line the streets of Chicago, catches the towhead's eye. The horsedrawn aerial truck's wobbly wooden ladder could hold only one or two men at a time, at heights of just three or four stories, a far cry from today's hydraulic ladders.

Down another corridor sits one of the most majestic engines in the museum: the stark-white American La France Model 400. With its 240-horsepower engine, this from 1935 to 1960. The elaborate gilded scrollwork swirling across its body captures the over-the-top style of 1920s touring cars and flapper skirts.

The museum's newest exhibit, the National Firefighting Hall of Heroes, honors America's fire fighters, paramedics, and emergency medical technicians. The names of men and women who have died in the line of duty line the walls. While the decline in fire fighter deaths in the United States from 138 in 1981 to 72 in 1997 - is encouraging, the empty frames on the stark walls await too many more of them to come.

In addition to the equipment exhibits, the museum offers a variety of programs and displays that teach children about fire safety.

I find my young friend exploring a playhouse decorated with Dalmatian-spotted curtains and sporting smoke detectors. Cartoon-style signs point out the hidden perils of electrical outlets. Nearby stands Haz Place, a dollhouse that lights up in areas where hazards lurk.Leaving the museum, I watch mom help her son don a yellow slicker and fire hat as he prepares to board a miniature fire engine. He is ready to fight his first fire.

The Hall of Flame Museum is definitely worth a visit by fire engine buffs of all ages.

WHEN YOU GO

The Hall of Flame Museum of Firefighting, 6101 E. Van Buren St., is in Papago Park across from the Phoenix Zoo and adjacent to Phoenix Municipal Stadium. Take Loop 202 to East Van Buren Street, cross Galvin Parkway, and turn right into the parking lot. The museum is open year-round Monday through Saturday, 9 A.M. to 5. P.M.; Sunday, noon to 4 P.M. Admission is: $5, adults; $4, seniors 62 plus; $3, ages six to 17; $1.50, three to five; free, under three. Call (602) 275-3473 for additional information.