Every child loves Fire Trucks…
And it was no different for Fire4Hire founder Richie!
Having grown up around Fire Stations in Sydney NSW, where his Grandfather was the Motor Officer at Headquarters, and having a father with an interest in collecting model Fire Engines from around the world, an enthusiasm for Fire Engines was unavoidable!
After the early years of toys in the backyard, and visiting stations with Dad & Grandad, Richie’s passion lay dormant while other pursuits and a career got in the way of the Fire 4 Hire story. This was until 2009, when a 1974 International 1610/A Fire Engine was spotted for sale in Sydney, coincidentally timed with an upcoming Fire fighter friends wedding.
A spontaneous decision was made, and the truck was purchased and fulfilled it’s role as a surprise guest at the wedding.. This led to many photos of wedding guests posing with the truck, and once the reception finished a late evening pub crawl with a hired tow-truck driver at the wheel. The wedding / reception / ensuing pub crawl was a great success, and with this, an idea was born…
2010 saw trial and error in sourcing the best vehicle for conversion into passenger / charter service, and after trialling an older 1986 International 1950/C in November, the first two Fire 4 Hire Scanias were purchased ex Melbourne Fire Brigade and brought to QLD for conversion works.
Not long after arrival in QLD the 2011 floods disaster struck Brisbane, and these vehicles were put to work in the flood recovery effort, initially at the Rocklea Produce Markets, then in Brisbane CBD and Southbank.
Later in 2011 another two identical Scanias became available and were added to the fleet to enable carriage of groups of up to 40 passengers aboard the now 4 strong fleet. Works were completed in areas of engineering, seating design and manufacture, custom cabin suspension, stereo system and electrical systems ready for service in the vehicles new lives as Fire 4 Hire – Fire Trucks.
Fire4Hire invites you to ride aboard our real Fire Trucks and share the fun and enthusiasm that children (both big and little) enjoy about the love of Fire Engines!
