One last Fire related story

"The day the Ladder kept going"

We got called to a box alarm at a downtown bank, it was 1976. Being on the engine we were first to arrive. As we were making an inspection, (alarm panel, odors, or signs of an emergency) the ladder truck came racing down the hill full speed, Siren screaming, and went right past the scene down main street and across the bridge. We were still on the scene getting ready to head back to quarters (false alarm) when the ladder truck drove past the scene again and back up the hill. Arriving back at the firehouse we drove around back, we had a drive through firehouse, no need to back in from the street. As we pulled around we found the ladder truck parked out in the field to the rear of the firehouse.

The unit was like this one, the drawn section is because the unit was open cab,
but the department had a wooden roof built for it.

Walking inside we got the story, the ladder truck was a 50's era American La France 65 foot mid ship mount ladder with a gasoline engine and standard hydraulic brakes. Coming down the hill the ladder had lost it's brakes, the chauffeur continued down main, crossed the river, idled around the monument at the traffic circle, putted back through town up the hill, around back and beached it in the field. Turned out a brake line had burst, and being hydraulic instead of air the unit lost brakes. With the introduction of air brakes, a break in a line would lock the brakes, since air holds the brakes off, but that wouldn't be until the next ladder truck arrived, around 1978 or 79

Replaced by one of these