All Fired Up and Ready to Go - 5th January, 2016

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It would make a great promotional vehicle or a big boy’s toy, but you know what, this 1978 International fire appliance would make a pretty good fire engine for putting out fires and stuff. Whatever you’d want to use it for is up to you, all you’ve got to do is bid.

In December 1978 the International 2150B was being rolled out by the NZ Fire Service all over NZ. To many NZ fire fighters it must have felt like Christmas had come early, although only slightly early. It was a state of the art appliance with hardwearing but highly fashionable brown vinyl seats, enough of them to accommodate seven firemen, and a stonking 9013cc diesel engine. It was quite the machine in its day.

I was having a bit of a Google search about these fire engines and lucked into a bit of information about this very appliance as well as a photo from its heyday. This appliance, known as JD8816, was built by the Mills-Tui company in Rotorua and delivered to Christchurch in December 1978. It spent most of its fire fighting career with the Lincoln volunteer brigade and when it was retired from duty it was purchased by a Christchurch construction company and used for site dust suppression until recently. It could do with a tidy up but it has pretty low mileage for its age and should have many more years of life left in it.

This classic NZ fire engine is being auctioned online right now and closes next Tuesday (12/1). It is located in Christchurch.