From left, LAFD ladder truck crew Dave Shorter, Tom Sharplin, Derek Drummond, and Pete Drummond. PHOTOS ANDY CAMPBELL
Pete Drummond’s Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) ladder truck can drive on both sides of the road at once because it has two steering axles, the driver at the front and a “navigator” or back seat driver at the rear.
It means the 17-metre American import can easily get around most of New Zealand’s twisty roads. It’s driven the coast road around pre-Gabrielle Coromandel.
“We have done over 70,000 kilometres around New Zealand in this vehicle. We’ve driven over Arthur’s Pass when it’s been snowing or sleeting,” Pete said.
For 33 years, the ladder truck has been one of the stars of the fund-raising Variety Bash and the recently renamed Variety Trillian Bash where it was known as Team Fishpot.
Last week the ladder truck was spotted during a refuelling stop at Gull Te Kūiti. The Seagrave fire truck is powered by an 18 litre inline six-cylinder engine that consumes petrol at a rate of about one litre per kilometre.
“We just put $670 worth of petrol in it from Auckland,” Peter said.
“I pay for it. We use it for raising money. We’ve been to Te Kūiti on a number of occasions over the years.”
At the refuelling stop, the on-board engineer took the opportunity provided by the dry concrete to re-balance the air brakes.
“We decided we would do it here. We could have done it when we get to the other end, but we try to use the experience of life.”
The truck and its five-man crew were on the way to Awakino. The 1960 Seagrave ladder truck was donated to Auckland city in 1990 by the then mayor of Los Angeles as a sister city gift. It languished at Motat for a while before Peter Drummond bought it and put it to work.
It came with LAFD jackets, which come in handy on the road with the roofless vehicle, and a few Kiwi extras – 2500 watt RMS sound system, coffee machine, and beer fridge.
The ladder still works and was used to repair the top of the flagpole at one of the recently visited schools.
“The ladder goes up 10 storeys or 100 feet, everything is fully operational on it,” Peter said.
“There’s no pump on it. So, this leaves the fire station and gets to the scene and positions itself – with the rear steering it is highly manoeuvrable and it can jack-knife itself to counterbalance the ladder.
“Push the ladder up; in the locker on the other side there is a hose that connects to the monitor on the ladder and the hose just goes up as the [ladder].”
The pump truck then parks alongside the ladder truck, puts a stand-pipe in and pumps the water up.
This year, the Variety Trillian Bash kicked off in New Plymouth with 30 teams and 180 participants.
