Posted September 30, 2021 Was up in Alpine this past Sunday and noticed a brand news spanking nice looking BC rig, a Chevy pick-up with the usual command bed. Really nice looking rig with the chevrons in the back. The gentlemen driving stopped up the street and I regretted not stopping to introduce myself and take some pics. Not seeing anything about it in social media, so standby for some pics. Not sure if they go by BC-7 or 4701 up there. In the old days it was Fire-47, and my friend the former chief "Woody" Downing, unfortunately, I learned passed on I think this past July. For those that did not know Chief Downing, he was quite progressive for the little Alpine Fire Department back in the 1980's and 1990's. He was responsible for getting them the two beautiful then new E-One Hurricane pumpers that were the light show in town before LED lighting. He was spearheading a new station which was designated as Station 24, Harbison Canyon, and actually one of the Hurricanes was E24. Due to budgets and internal politics on the fire board, that Fs was never funded/built. There is now a Fs24 with a County of San Diego Fire Authority rig, staffed by Cal Fire. I was wanting to get to the El Cajon or La Mesa car shows since Woody was still attending and showing his vehicles. Due to COVID environment and all the chaos, I never got to go by. I believe Woody at one time had an older Crown pumper in his personal fleet. ~Rescue51 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted September 30, 2021 (edited) Little addendum to my last originating post here. Chief Downing had a good relationship with Crest and Bostonia FD (respectively Fs18 and Fs19). I believe at that time Crest/Bostonia was headed by Chief Daryl Jobe (or Jobb??) . Daryl was good at grant writing and ended up, due to that, getting funded for those Ferrara pumpers, and the Ferrara rescue that got absorbed by San Miguel Fire-Rescue, but prior to that Cal Fire. At one point the union between Crest & Bostonia was called East County Fire. Fs19 had a van-like Ford box ambulance (Aid-19???) and that always ran up the grade to the medical aids in Alpine, think it was only BLS. The 2 E-One Hurricanes that Chief Downing spec'd and had the builds on, they were fairly innovative, with roll-up doors back then (circa 1990), and I believe E17's may have been one of the first rescue-pumpers in that era. The roll-up doors had not yet been perfected and some of the engineers + FF's complained if E17 got on an uneven grade or slope, the doors would not roll-up. Not sure if Campo FD took the E17 or E24 (reserve) but eventually they ended up with one of those Alpine pumpers for a while (see photo). ~Rescue51 Edited September 30, 2021 by Rescue51 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted October 6, 2021 Caught B47 (or 4701's) new Chevy rig today outside station. Also parked by a newer Ford Explorer which I am not sure who is assigned that from Alpine Fire Protection District. AFPD has always been a bit different/stylish/innovative. Don't see too many Chevy BC rigs like that. The black trim looks nice! ~Rescue51 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
