b'CHARITY OF THE MONTHHall of Flame Museum of FirefightingBy Mark Moorhead Curator of EducationA lthough it receives visitors from all over the world, and hundreds of school kids a year on field trips, and is well-known among buffs of historic fire apparatus, the Hall of Flame Museum of Firefighting still considers itself one of Phoenixs too-well-kept secrets. The worlds largest museum of firefighting history is a hidden gem known locally mostly by word of mouth.The museum is located along East Van Buren, near the Phoenix Zoo, the ASU baseball stadium (Phoenix Municipal), and the Salt River Project building. Its been in this location since the early 70s, after its relocation from Wisconsin. It was founded there in 1961 by businessman George Getz, Jr., due to an unusual Christmas gift he received in 1955.Getz had noticed a vintage fire truck alongside the road while driving through Illinois with his family that year and remarked admiringly of it. His wife Olive and son Bert arranged to buy the vehiclea 1924 American La France Type 12 pumperand gave it to him for Christmas as a rather elaborate gag gift.The result, however, was the beginning of a lifelong fascination for Getz with the history and technology of firefighting, which led to the foundation, just six years later, of a museum in Kenosha, Wisconsin, devoted to preserving the traditions of the fire service. Getz dubbed the new facility the Hall of Flame, making it the rare example of a museum with a pun for a name. Some years later, the Getz family moved their business and home base to the Valley and brought the Hall of Flame collection with them.The Hall of Flames galleries are home to more than 100 pieces of larger apparatus, spread out over six galleries and ranging from the early 18th century to the 21st century. Gallery 1 features an English hand pumper built in 1725, a spectacular hand pumper built in Philadelphia in 1844 that spent its career in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and a parade carriage built in New York in 1870 that represented the Hotchkiss Fire Department of Derby, Connecticut, but looks more like what Cinderella rode to the ball in.Gallery 2 contains fire trucks primarily from the first half of the 20th century, including an 1897 Champion-Christie water tower from Toledo, Ohio and a 1919 Mack bulldog army truck converted into a fire truck by the fire department of Baltimore, Maryland by the addition of a previously horse-drawn ladder wagon and a chemical cart. This gallery is also home to a visitor favorite, the 1935 American La France 400 series pumper from Norfolk, Nebraska, with its memorable white paint job, and a 1921 Seagrave pumper that served the Phoenix Fire Department until about 1950, and was eventually rescued from the desert near Taos, New Mexico and returned to its former beauty by the Hall of Flames late restorer Don Hale.Gallery 3 contains vehicles of more recent vintage, many of which are used in parades and other public events around the area, as well as an exhibit on the Phoenix Fire Departments call center. Its also the home of the FDNYs Rescue 4, which responded to the World Trade Center in Manhattan on September 11, 2001, and whose entire crew was lost.Gallery 4 features a similarly solemn exhibit; one of the two transport buggies which carried the Granite Mountain Hotshots of Prescott, Arizona to the Yarnell Hill Fire of 2013, resulting in the loss of 19 members of that crew (the other vehicle is at the County Fire Museum of Los Angeles). The gallery also displays large ladder rigs and most of the Hall of Flames extensive, world-wide shoulder patch collection.Along with these large galleries, the Hall of Flame also has a video theater which also features a fine collection of antique helmets from around the world, a Hall of Heroes memorializing firefighters who have died in the line of duty or been decorated for bravery, and a wildland gallery devoted to smokejumpers, hotshots and firefighting aviation. Throughout the museum, youll find early insurance marks, historical fire extinguishers, and more. At the rear of Gallery 4 theres a hands-on childrens activity area, and, in Gallery 2, possibly the museums most well-loved piece: a 1951 American La France from Miami, Arizona that kids, and grown-ups, can climb aboard and play on.During the Museums closure to the public due to the pandemic, between mid-March and the reopening in early July, the Hall of Flame took the opportunity to make many improvements to the facility. New exhibits were added, including a display depicting the evolution of EMS equipment in the Hall of Heroes, an exhibit devoted to early firefighting equipment in Gallery 1, and a display on the firefighting comic strip "Smokey Stover" in Gallery 2. Also in Gallery 2 is an 8-to-1 scale model of a 1933 Ahrens-Fox C-T-4 pumper, donated to the Hall of Flame by the late Bert Hansen of Boulder City, Nevada. At the entryway to Galleries 3 and 4 is a new computer station allowing access to information on the Hall of Flames 7,000-strong collection of arm patches.Along with these enhancements, the Hall of Flame has also been attempting to increase its virtual profile, by presenting the collection through the Hall of Flame YouTube Channel, offering both video tours of many of the most prominent exhibits, and by continuing its educational mission with many storytime videos of classic firefighting childrens stories like No Dragons for Tea, Hercules, Bravest of All, Fireboat, The Fire Cat, The New Fire Engine, The Too Little Fire Engine, Pink Fire Trucks and Curious George and the Firefighters, among others. These videos are available for free as a homeschooling option in history or science. hallofflame.orgArizonaRealCountry.com April 2021 65'