'Do you know what a paramedic is?'
—EMERGENCY!
Classic cars gain panache and value with racing history: They've won at Le Mans, Indy or Daytona or run the Mille Miglia through Italy. Fire trucks and rescue equipment acquire this pedigree at their first call to service. They are the mobile tools first responders depend on to save lives and property: in 19th-century Philadelphia, in Los Angeles and other areas such as central Arizona, when, almost a decade ago, two crew buggies delivered the fated 19 hotshots to the Granite Mountain wildfire in the Bradshaw Mountains.
The County of Los Angeles Fire Museum includes 70 vintage rigs, such as an 1855 hand-drawn hose cart from Philadelphia; the famous Parademic Squad 51 and ambulance from the television show “EMERGENCY!”; and a 1925 Stutz fire engine.
These and other showpieces are rotated for display at the Mayne Event Center, 16400 Bellflower Boulevard, in Bellflower, just outside Los Angeles.
Also in the city, the museum has a 27,000-square-foot restoration venue. In addition, a 16,000-square-foot long-term storage warehouse is in the city of South Gate, and 500-square-foot venue is in East Los Angeles at the Los Angeles County Fire Department training facility.
In the mid-1970s, two Los Angeles County firefighters began what would become the County of Los Angeles Fire Museum Association.
