Leno: Heroes Come in Red

If you like buying cars by the pound, a fire engine is absolutely the way to go. They’re built like aircraft, not in the sense that they’re light but in the sense that they have to start every time and be perfectly reliable, so you have two of everything: dual ignition, dual batteries, and so on. They’re like big Tonka trucks, and I’ve managed to collect three of them over the years, from a 17,000-pound steam-driven Amoskeag from 1900 to a 1911 front-drive Christie to the 1941 American LaFrance with a V-12 designed by Augie Duesenberg. They are all amazing examples of engineering to a purpose. Plus—and this always shocks people—any piece of equipment that fits a modern fire engine will fit mine, because the law since 1880 states that all pipe sizes and threads used in firefighting must be standardized so that if a crew comes from another town to help, their equipment will all match up and fit on the hydrants.

It’s believed the Christie was the first or one of the first fire engines in Los Angeles. J. Walter Christie was a brilliant if slightly crazy engineer who pioneered both front-drive axles and, later, tank suspensions. He’s the first guy to lap Indianapolis at over 100 mph, and he did it in a front-drive car of his own design. In fact, it’s basically the same front-drive mechanism that powers the fire engine. Before the Christie, most fire departments had horse-drawn carriages and guys with buckets. Under the hood is a ­90-hp T-head four-cylinder, a huge horsepower number for the day; we’re talking Clydesdale horses. Behind the driver and the articulating pivot is a steam boiler and pump that can move 1520 gallons of water a minute. It changed everything in firefighting.

I got mine from the Wayne, New Jersey, fire department, which bought it in 1970 as an antique to use in parades. But the guys who took care of it got old and retired and nobody knew how to maintain it. That’s what happens to public service vehicles; unless someone takes a shine to them, they just get broomed out when newer technology comes along. My 1941 American LaFrance was dumped at Burbank airport to be a barricade for dust blowing across the runway. After 9/11, they decreed that there shouldn’t be any obstacles near a runway that terrorists could hide behind. I saw them hooking it up to haul away for scrap and I offered the scrap value. They said if I could get it out of there, I could have it.

Originally a Warner Bros. Studios lot truck, the LaFrance is beautiful, at the time the most advanced fire truck yet made. It was the first to be tested in a wind tunnel, and all the equipment and ladders were contained within the body. The engine is fascinating, a narrow-angle overhead-cam V-12 with 265 horsepower, which made it the most powerful road engine produced in America until the Chrysler Hemi. The most expensive part of the restoration was the red paint, $600 a quart, and we needed gallons of it. To paint the gold leaf lettering and stripes, I hired this pinstriper who wouldn’t work until you gave him two bottles of Scotch. He took a huge gulp and then drew a line all the way down the body that was straight as an arrow. Then he took another big gulp to do the other side. He was about a third of the way down when he passed out. We took him back to the hotel and the next day he started again. It took two or three days to get it done that way, but it’s perfect.

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This past January, LA had the worst fires it has ever experienced, and tens of thousands of houses were destroyed. Nothing was left standing, just chimneys. Cars literally melted into one another. The fire crews were working 12-hour shifts, sleeping in tents and eating cold sandwiches out of box lunches. I feel so stupid as a celebrity in these situations, as there’s not much you can do. But during the restoration, I had taken the water tank out of the LaFrance and reconfigured it as a motorcycle hauler, so we loaded it with chicken and ribs to grill and served it to the firefighters over five days. It was amazing to watch them work, to see how professional and dedicated they are to saving lives and property as they fought the fires house by house. And that old fire truck that they were going to haul away for scrap had a chance to be of some small service again to the community.

This story first appeared in the May/June 2025 issue of Hagerty Drivers Club magazine. Join the club to receive our award-winning magazine and enjoy insider access to automotive events, discounts, roadside assistance, and more.