Welcome home

The Brownsville Fire Department has something to be excited about — the homecoming of an old friend.

One of the fire department’s first aerial fire trucks, a 1957 American La France, arrived here Tuesday from Huntsville after an extensive two-year refurbishing project.

Inmates at various Texas Department of Criminal Justice prisons worked on the project, which cost the city of Brownsville roughly $50,000.

“They did a little bit of everything,” Fire Chief Lenny Perez said of the inmates’ work. “It was rotting away at the water tower on Alton Gloor (Boulevard).”

The chief plans to use the fire truck for fire prevention presentations and parades. It will usually be on display at Central Station on East Adams Street in downtown Brownsville.

But it seems there are still some mechanical glitches to iron out. At its first public appearance at the city’s Fourth of July parade on Wednesday, the 50-year-old truck stalled just before it was to drive down the parade route. Although Brownsville police jump-stared the fire truck and got it running again, it was too late to be in the parade.

Had it made it down Elizabeth Street for the parade, the driver would have had a difficult time maneuvering the truck back to the station. “It has no power steering,” Perez said.

Other than that, Perez said, everything on the fire truck works fine and he is happy the project was completed.

“It’s a way of giving back to the community,” Perez said. “It’s part of Brownsville’s history — to show young people that we still care about tradition. To show where we were at one time and where we are today — modernization.”