VIDEO: Generations of Kent Firefighters Talk Shop

The juxtaposition of old and new couldn't have proved more stark a contrast when past and present Kent firefighters gathered at the city's West Side Fire Station.

The reason for the quasi-reunion? A 1938 American Lafrance ladder truck.

The Kent Firefighters Association, the department's labor union, recently bought the old truck from a sandpit in Mantua, where the truck dutifully performed the same task it had for decades: pumping water. Only this time, it wasn't putting out fires.

The firefighters' union bought the truck, which was in service in Kent until the late 1960s, with the goal of restoring it for a more relaxed, semi-retired life cruising in parades.

The truck was on display at the , and firefighters at the department are slowly nursing it back to road-worthy condition. They hope to see it in the city's parades as early as next year.

Kent Fire Chief James Williams came across the original bid-purchase specifications for the truck, which perhaps showed the biggest change in fire equipment in the past 70-plus years. The ladder truck originally sold for a few thousand dollars. Today's trucks can run more than $250,000.