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Park Ridge’s historic 1934 fire truck displayed at auto show; $10,000 being raised to make it drivable

When a 1934 “Lil’ Pirsch” fire truck joined the Park Ridge Auto Show Aug. 4, it was parked just a block from where it was putting out fires more than 50 years earlier.

The Park Ridge Historical Society, which purchased the Pirsch in 2020, displayed the vehicle at the show, at the intersection of Prospect and Summit Avenues, alongside photos of the truck in action.

“It was parked outside Holt’s restaurant when Holt’s used to be Walgreens,” Park Ridge Historical Society Vice President Brian Lazzaro said. “It was parked on the street helping put out the fire. It’s kind of neat that the truck is going to be parked like a block away from where it’s been used.”

Lazzaro said people might not recall that the truck was part of the Park Ridge Fire Department until 1967 before selling to the Memphis, Tenn. fire department. The historical society bought it for $20,000 in 2020 and is now trying to raise money for repairs, including new brakes and new engine parts.

While the Pirsch has appeared in a number of community events since returning to the city on a flatbed truck or parked, Lazzaro said the goal is to have the truck fully operational.

“It hasn’t been running on the streets of Park Ridge in more than 40 years,” he said. “It traditionally brought Santa to Uptown Park Ridge in wintertime and was in the Memorial Day parade.”

The truck’s appearance in the auto show is a milestone for the historical society and marks a new push for fundraising for repairs, Lazzaro said.

The plan was to display the truck’s flashing lights and do a demonstration of the vehicle’s siren and bell. “But with some future donations, we’ll be able to fire up the engine too,” he added.

He estimated that it will take another $10,000 to complete the full list of repairs and restorations.

Jeff Jensen, a senior engineer at the construction and mining equipment manufacturer Caterpillar whose hobby is restoring cars, is helping the historical society with the work. But the vintage JXC Hercules engine takes parts that are hard to find these days.

Jensen said he has mostly worked on more contemporary vehicles and enlisted a friend who is knowledgeable about Model-T car restoration to assist with repairs.

For such an old vehicle, much of the challenge is knowing where to find parts and what shops to contact to help with refurbishments, he said.

“Cosmetically, it’s actually in really good shape,” Jensen said of the Pirsch. “The guts of the vehicle is what we’re working on.”

They’re hoping to rebuild the truck so it’s as similar as possible to what rolled off the assembly line in 1934, he said: “The holy grail of any vehicle restoration is that every nut and bolt is like new and looking like the original.”

What they need is an auto shop where they can do the work, he added.

“We’re doing it as safely as we can, but at some point we’ll need a real shop,” Jensen said.

They’re also hoping to find a similar truck at an auto museum to guide further fixes to the vehicle, he said.

Since the truck appears to have been a custom order from Pirsch, achieving a perfect duplicate will be difficult, Jensen said. But getting the vehicle running should be “very doable” and could happen as soon as this fall, he said.