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We recently acquired a 1967 Snorkel from a collector in Kansas City. Originally from Parsons, Kansas, the Snorkel
was purchased in 1999 and moved to KC. It is in great shape, just requiring a little cleanup and a new gasket set for
the intake manifold.
The truck is built on an International chassis, with an International 589 V-8 and manual transmission. It has a
75' Snorkel, a 1000 gpm Waterous pump, and no water tank. The cab was built by Cincinnatti and the bodywork is by Pierce.
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| The Snorkel waiting to be unloaded. |
The Snorkel was a very popular item in the 60's and 70's. Most major cities had at least one. Today, they
have pretty much been replaced by tower ladders.
The Snorkel was invented by the Chicago Fire Department in the late 1950's. The first Snorkel is preserved in the
South Charleston, SC fire museum as part of the American LaFrance collection.
An obvious advantage was the ability to reach over the top of buildings or stop at windows and evacuate people or fight
a fire. They made excellent water towers.
The taller Snorkels, 85' and higher, had very long overhangs and were tough to get in and out of tight spaces.
They also had a limited reach from the street of no more than the length of the upper boom, or 35' to 40'. This limited
their usefulness to big cities where the buildings were near the street.
Most have been purchased by tree trimming companies or painting contractors. We are fortunate to have an unmolested
example of this very important part of fire apparatus history.
Snorkel type apparatus were made by several companies. Snorkel made theirs in St. Joseph, Missouri on a variety
of custom and commercial chassis. American LaFrance made their version called the "Aero Chief". Hy Ranger made
one that was easily distinguished by it's lattice style construction. Many of those were built on Ward LaFrance chassis.
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| The Snorkel appears at it's first public outing. The kids loved it. |
On October 19,2009 Estes Park experienced one of the largest fires in recent history in the center of the downtown business
district. The blaze destroyed a 24,000 square foot shopping mall building that dated to the 1920's.
Museum director Doug Klink, an Estes Park volunteer firefighter, was operating a pumper at the fire when the Chief called
for ladder trucks from Loveland and Boulder, about 40 minutes away. Estes Park's 75' LTI ladder truck, Ladder 6, was
already operating at the fire, protecting the historic Mall Theater building. It was clear more aerial streams were
needed.
Doug radioed the Chief and asked if the Snorkel could help and the Chief replied that it would welcome so Doug brought
it to the scene, where it operated at 1000 gpm for about 5 hours, helping to slow the spread of the blaze until the other
ladder trucks could arrive.
All the exposures were saved, and the town is very grateful to not have lost the entire block to the fire.
The Snorkel had operated at a number of public safety events and the Chief was familiar with the unit and the maintenance
standards to which all of the Reliance trucks are kept. We are grateful to the Chief and the Town of Estes Park for
the opportunity to lend a hand and make even more history for this great truck.
| Snorkel puts 1000 gpm on the fire |
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| The Snorkel being supplied by Estes Park's 2009 Smeal pumper, Engine 7. |
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