Behind the Pilot Point fire station on Washington Street sits an old, rusty rig that once helped keep the city safe.
The leadership at the Pilot Point Fire Department, as well as a battalion of community members, have a dream of making the 1942 International engine gleam again.
“Being it was bought brand new here, it’s just a part of the department’s history,” Chief Heath Hudson said.
Preserving the rig means so much to Hudson and Assistant Chief Bryan Cox because of the special place the department plays in their careers as firefighters.
“I started my career here,” Hudson said. “Even though I spent 30-something years in Denton, this is my department. I wouldn’t have had the career in Denton if it hadn’t been for Pilot Point and the Pilot Point Fire Department.”
Although Cox didn’t start in Pilot Point, he has spent 26 years at the department.
“We have got to hang onto the history so you know what you came from, so you know where you’re going,” Cox said. “… Hopefully we finish it in our time left in the organization and it’s not still sitting out there, but it will just be cool to have for future generations to see where the organization came from.”
Both Hudson and Cox worked for years in the old fire station at the corner of Washington and Division streets, but many of their staff members are newer to the department than the new station.
“I think it’s been an eye-opener to our younger generation in the fire service,” Cox said. “They get these big old firetrucks. To see what they used to—how much the fleet has progressed through the years, the improvements and sizes of them, and what all we’re required to carry now that they didn’t carry back then.”
Most of the firefighters who rode on the truck have passed away.
“Guys like Corky Mills, Bob Davis, Sharky Ray, all of them are gone,” Hudson said, adding that the late Clifton Irick also fought fires with that rig.
There are still some here to tell stories of those times—Jim Schindler and Everett Boerner.
The rig was already out of commission in the 1970s.
About 40 years ago, a man in Mountain Springs bought the truck, still equipped with the original wood ladder and fire extinguishers, which he parked in his pasture.
That same man donated the truck to the department, and the project to restore the rig was born.
Work on the rig will largely be done by the firefighters themselves, with limited outside help as needed, as the staff finds time between calls.
In October, the Pilot Point Chamber of Commerce held the first fundraiser for the project— a glow-in-the-dark golf ball drop held at Christie’s Golf Ranch.
That event brought in more than $3,400.
The Restore the Rig live auction will be held at 6 p.m. March 22 at the American Legion at 905 Foundation Drive in Pilot Point.
Michael Sanders, who volunteered with the department in the past, will be the auctioneer, and there will be brisket sandwich plates available for $10 apiece along with live music by the Backroad Travelers.
The fundraiser is a group effort, with long-time Pilot Point families dedicating their time and efforts to make it a success, including Steve and Patti Dellenbaugh; Jamie and Steve Irick; and Hudson’s daughter Alex Rope.
“When I first started as a volunteer myself, that piece of equipment was still owned by the city,” Steve Irick said. “It was out of service and parked down on the city lot, so there’s a lot of history packed in that old piece of equipment.”
Southern Junkiez, one of the businesses on the Pilot Point Square, is also holding a calendar square fundraiser where people can select a day on the calendar for March or April and pay the amount that matches the day.
Those who donate at Southern Junkiez will be entered into a drawing for each date they select.
Checks for the March 22 event should be made out to PPFD Donation Fund. Donations can also be made at www.venmo.com/u/ cityofpilotpointfiredepartment.
The ultimate goal is to have the rig in working order and to have a place for it in the department’s future central station to have it and the 1906 hose cart on display.
“The plan is to have a bay dedicated to the hose cart and the [International ’42] truck to be on display for citizens as they drive by or want to stop and see,” Cox said.
