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1911 SEAGRAVE 
AC90
Auto 65' Aerial Ladder Truck
Shop Number
77
Builder Number 5833


Source: Walt Pittman Collection
Photo Date: 1911
Seagrave Manufacture Photo

 
1911 Seagrave Auto 65' Aerial Ladder Truck
Shop Number 77 Original Assignment: Truck 6 at Engine 26*
Builder Number  5833
Contract Number  1496
Date Accepted  01/08/12
Cost: $11,840.
  *Originally in service as Truck 6.  Reassigned as Truck 5 at Engine 23 - 05/11/12.  

Truck Company No. 6 at Engine 26

Truck Company No. 6 assigned to Engine 26. 
Photo Date: Circa 1911

This was the first auto driven aerial ladder truck purchased by the Los Angeles Fire Department.  It had 90 horse power and was air cooled.  Not the circular air scoop on the front of the engine.  
 


 


Source: Walt Pittman Collection
Photo Date: December 1911
Truck Company No. 6 assigned to Engine 26. 
Note: Chief R.J. Scott in Captain's Seat. 

The Department took delivery of Shop Number 77 on January 8, 1912 and it went into service as Truck 6 at Engine 26 located at 2475 West Washington Street.  On May 11, 1912 the apparatus was reassigned as Truck 5 and housed at Engine 23 located at 225 East Fifth Street.   

Truck Company No. 5 at Engine 23
Source: Walt Pittman Collection
Photo Date: Circa 1912


Source: Walt Pittman Collection
Photo Date: Circa 1912

 

 

 

The wreck of Truck 5 

January 22, 1922
 Truck Company 5  hit by a Pacific Electric streetcar while responding to an alarm.

Fireman Harry J. Custer

Truck Company No. 5 (then assigned to Engine 23 at 4th and Town collided   with a Pacific Electric Railway Car while responding to a 7:45 a.m. fire at 940 Stanford Street.  While traveling southbound on Stanford, Truck 5 entered the Ninth Street intersection, when a westbound Pacific Electric car slammed into the apparatus just forward of Tillerman Custer's seat.  His seatbelt snapped and he was hurled headfirst to the street.  Custer died of head injuries.

Truck Company No. 5 

Source: Walt Pittman Collection
Photo Date: April 6, 1924
Truck Company No. 5

                               Fireman Ercil G. Morse          
As the Company posed for this photo, they were dispatched to a second alarm at 1320 South Main Street.  Truck 5 was ordered to the roof to start ventilation of the three-story commercial building.  Tillerman Ercil Morse stepped on a flush mounted glass skylight and fell three floors.  He died the following day of head injuries.

After the wreck of Truck 5 in 1922 Shop Number 77 (tractor) was rebuilt, overhauled and repainted.  An F-6 water cooled motor was installed.  Note the reconfigured front end.  The trailer was replaced with Shop Number 74, the 1905 (ex-horse drawn - see photo below) Seagrave 85' aerial.  The apparatus went back into service as Truck 5, Shop Number 77 on August 11, 1922.

 


 


Source: Walt Pittman Collection
Photo Date: Circa 1906
In Service as Truck Company No. 2

Truck Company No. 8 at Engine 26


Source: Walt Pittman Collection
Photo Date: 1927
In Service as Truck 5

Shop Number 77 shown as Truck 8 at Engine 26, 2475 West Washington Blvd.  The 85' aerial tip was broken in 1926.  The entire trailer was rebuilt as a City Service Truck and placed back in service in 1927.


Source: Walt Pittman Collection
Photo Date: Circa 1927

 


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