Fire Associates' former Fire Support Unit 2 must be part feline - it seems to have 9 lives.
In the early 1990s, this vehicle served as a Santa Clara County Vector Control unit. Then, it was donated to Fire Associates and, after some custom modification by member Don Gilbert, became a part of the organization's FSU fleet. In May, 2009, it was donated by FASCV to the San Jose Fire Museum (see this link) and, now, it has been transformed into a fleet service vehicle for the Museum.
Thanks to some work by San Jose Fire Museum Fleet Manager Randy Perez, the 1990 Dodge Power Ram is not only part of the Museum's historic collection, but it now does double duty as the Museum's road service vehicle.
Randy says, "This vehicle is perfectly suited to our needs. When we take one of our antique vehicles on the road, we usually need an additional vehicle to tag along behind the antique rig as safety support. This former FSU is big and red and has the bonus of rotating, amber warning lights."
It should be noted that the rig also has a 5,000-watt generator for power equipment and plenty of storage compartments for tools that might be needed in case an antique rig has a breakdown on the road. And, because of its towing capacity, the new service truck can pull a trailer for hauling several of the smaller rigs in the Museum's collection. All of these are capabilities that the Museum didn't have before the donation from Fire Associates.
