It didn’t matter that the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management’s police boat was on a trailer. Just to get behind the wheel was a terrific thrill for toddler Bowen Spurr.
The 4-year-old, who was wearing a plastic fire chief’s helmet, sat smiling turning the wheeler as his proud parents, Ryan and Carlee Spurr, looked on.
Moments like that – and like dozens of children trying their hand at maneuvering a battery-operated Sparky the Fire Dog – were just a part of the Rhode Island Antique Fire Apparatus Society’s 15th annual show on Sunday in East Greenwich.
A total of 45 privately owned and maintained antique fire trucks pulled into the campus of New England Tech. They were joined by a range of vendors, fire equipment specialists and even members of the Rhode Island State Police, who brought their agency’s rollover simulator.
“My son loves seeing all the different trucks and watching the fire officials lifting their ladders into the air,” Ryan Spurr said. “This was quite the spectacle.”
Richard Quetta, a North Providence resident who serves as president of the 150-member Rhode Island Antique Fire Apparatus Society, said: “We had a great crowd in attendance today and we filled two boxes with [donated] unwrapped toys, which we will be giving to needy children at the holidays. People were very generous today. We thank all those folks who participated in their drive.”
Quetta noted that the show drew fire vehicles from across Rhode Island and Southeastern New England, as well as parts of New York and Connecticut.
“Our society has come a long, long way,” he said.
Quetta owns a traveling memorial fire truck that he maintains in memory of his late brother, Frank J. Quetta Jr., who was a battalion chief in the Providence Fire Department.
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