Tolland Fire Department Acquires Rare Photo Of Truck That Certainly Had Its Share Of Calls

TOLLAND, CT — The Tolland Fire Department has shared a rare photograph of its former Engine 440, a mini pumper that served the department for nearly three decades before being retired in 1994.

The department said the photo is believed to have been taken in 1992 or 1993 and shows then-Deputy Chief and Public Safety Officer Carl Dojan, who later became assistant chief, in the driver's seat of the apparatus.

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According to the department, Engine 440 was a 1967 Ford Farrar four-wheel-drive mini pumper equipped with a 500-gallon-per-minute front-mounted Barton American pump and a 250-gallon water tank. The truck also carried firefighting equipment designed to respond to smaller fires.

The apparatus entered service in 1967, operating initially from the Dunn Hill Road Firehouse before later serving out of the Plains Road Firehouse, also known as Station 440. It remained in service until its retirement in 1994.

The department said the former fire engine still exists today and has been repurposed as a flatbed truck on a farm in Ashford.