How do you get rid of an unwanted fire truck? Simple, put it on Craigslist!
That is exactly what the Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation (GIPEC) did with an unused 1993 Pierce aerial platform truck they inherited from the Coast Guard when the city-state agency took control over Governors Island in 2003. They got over $75,000 from the East Prospect Fire Company in York County, Pennsylvania near Lancaster.
That is a pretty good deal since we have seen similar older apparatus on sale for ranging from $50,000 to over $100,000 and a new rig can cost upwards of $300,000. The taxpayers of New York may have lost out a bit on the deal, but we have to give the GIPEC credit for thinking outside of the box and directly putting the rig on Craigslist instead of going through a government auction middleman that would have gotten a cut anyway.
The truck, which wasn’t needed since the federal firefighters that manned it were replaced with a FDNY team which brought its own FDNY apparatus to protect the island in 2003. The FDNY uses aerial platform trucks made by Seagrave.
The FDNY pumper truck currently assigned to the island is unique to the FDNY fleet, being the only American LaFrance pumper, and was a gift from the Brigade des Sapeurs-Pompiers de Paris (Paris Fire Department). It also has the distinction of taking part in the 2002 Bastille Day parade in Paris.
We should also note that many old FDNY trucks have found homes in Pennsylvania, including at least one which is still in basic FDNY colors, so the idea of a fire department in Pennsylvania finding a truck here doesn't seem at all out of the ordinary although finding it on Craigslist is.
