Photo by Peyton Neely Marietta firefighter Josh Chevalier stands on top of the 1938 American Lafrance JOX 65-foot ladder truck at his Little Hocking home in mid-March.

The truck is a 1938 American Lafrance JOX 65-foot ladder truck that began its journey in Marietta but has since made its way all over Ohio.

“I was working one day at station one and one of the city mechanics stopped in. He had just come from the state fire academy where he had taken a fire apparatus maintenance class,” said Chevalier. “He said he was in class with someone who knew where one of Marietta’s old trucks was and that it was going up for sale soon. I told him I’d be interested in that.”

Chevalier said he then got that man’s number at the start of 2017 and the truck was being held in Logan.

“None of us at the city even knew it still existed,” he said. “When I went to look at it, it was obvious it hadn’t run in many years but it appeared that it was all there.”

Photo Provided An old photo shows the ladder truck when it went on runs.

Chevalier said he knew he just had to bring it back to its home in Marietta. He then spoke with retired Marietta Fire Chief Tom Dempsey about how to get the truck back to the city.

“It’s really a neat find,” said Dempsey. “This truck is really special. I had always seen a lot of pictures of this truck but to see it in person was incredible. It’s attached to our town.”

Dempsey is a CDL truck driver and had access to a low-boy semi-truck to haul the truck to Chevalier’s Little Hocking home.

“We had about two inches to spare once it was loaded on the trailer,” said Chevalier.

This truck was originally delivered to Marietta in a rail car from Elmira, N.Y. on Dec. 6, 1938. It replaced an original horse-drawn ladder truck. The original truck cost was $13,000. It remained in service until around 1963 when it was replaced and sold to the Barnesville Fire Department.

Once the truck was purchased, Chevalier said he decided to learn more about that specific model. He became affiliated with The Society for the Preservation and Appreciation of Motor Fire Apparatus of America (SPAAMFAA) to find out more information.

“They put me into contact with a wealth of knowledge and other owners,” he said. “I spoke with a man named Larry Zotti from near St. Louis who owns the same model truck and is an expert on its history and design.”

From there, Chevalier learned about the make and model of the truck.

“The Marietta truck is very unique in that it is the very first JOX built by American Lafrance. It is also the first cab-over chassis fire apparatus ever built,” he said.

According to Chevalier, American Lafrance only built 110 models and most have since been scrapped. The best count on these trucks is around 20 that remain and even fewer that have been restored.

“Larry had the factory files and sent me original pictures of the truck before it left the factory in Elmira, N.Y.,” said Chevalier. “The factory pictures were very helpful because they were in high resolution and showed very detailed views of every side.”

One of the first things about the truck that Chevalier noticed when he first began looking into it was that the model had a unique engine.

“It turned out to be a V12 American Lafrance engine. I have since found out that American Lafrance built every piece of the truck including the engine,” he said. “I knew that the engine would need work so I started disassembling it. It became evident that a major cause of the engine’s lack of compression was from the nut shells that a chipmunk had dragged up the exhaust and into the manifold.”

Chevalier, along with Keith Thomas, a Columbus firefighter who knew about this model, then spent two full days rebuilding the top end of the engine in early March.

“After reassembling the engine, it fired right up and we were driving it the next day,” said Chevalier.

Typical fire apparatus full restorations can cost between $50,000 to more than $100,000, according to SPAAMFAA.

For an individual, a full restoration is not feasible. Chevalier said he plans to maintain the truck in working order and eventually paint the body and ladder. It will also need new tires which are a discontinued size and are difficult to source.

“I am wanting to be able to use it for parades, fire prevention events and even at firefighter funerals to hoist a flag,” said Chevalier. “My goal so far has been to have it road worthy and painted by the Washington County Labor Day parade so that the Marietta firefighters union can use it for our MDA Fill the Boot fund drive.”

Chevalier said the reason this truck means so much to him is because it served at the same department in the same station that he currently works in.

“The man I bought it from had purchased it from Barnesville in the late 1980s,” said Chevalier. “This truck was on many large fires and rescued many people from buildings in its time at Marietta.”

Floyd Keerps, 93, of Marietta, is a retired Marietta firefighter who remembers this model when he was on the squad in the 1950s.

“I worked with some of the guys that used this,” he said. “There are a lot of differences now. That small line is a boosted line and was the most important line because one man could just take it in the fire. They don’t use those anymore but when they did, that one was used the most.”

To Keerps, this is more than a restoration of an old truck but a piece of his life coming back.

“As I have talked to people who collect, research, and restore these trucks, I have found out how special it is to the fire service as a whole,” said Chevalier. “It is one of few survivors of its era and was a pioneer in apparatus design being the first cab-over design fire truck ever built.”

Chevalier said he has had offers from two fire museums looking to buy the truck but he won’t budge.

“They have wanted an American LaFrance JOX ladder for a long time but the main reason I decided to take on this venture was to bring it back to its home,” he said. “To me, it should be in Marietta’s parades and special events rather than sit in a museum in Texas or Pennsylvania.”