The Brainerd Fire Department is selling it’s biggest truck in the city fleet. The 1984 E-One Aerial Apparatus is the largest of the two ladder trucks with a tower that extends to 95 feet with a platform. 

The truck is a 1984 model and was purchased used by the Brainerd Fire Department from a city in Colorado in 1990-91. Ladder #1 as it is known replaced the departments old open coach snorkel truck that was used when the department was adjacent to the city hall.

 

 

At the time the garage door of the old fire hall was too short to accommodate the full size trucks. Once the Fire department moved to the “new” garages on the east bank of the Mississippi River on Laurel Street the open cab snorkel was finally replaced by this closed cab “giant.” For decades the E-one was the most interesting truck of Brainerd Fire Departments fleet and sat in the long garage stall furthest to the west of the stalls at station number one. Once Ladder #2 was purchased, which has a 75 foot tower, and no platform, the aging Ladder #1 was sent out to the newly construct station two by the paper mill on Mill Avenue. It is used for special occasions and situations, most notably for raising the departments giant American flag. 

The fire truck is now available for public auction online. It’s being sold as is in “fair” condition. Look for news of the Ladder #1 replacement in the near future.