A museum in Wilmot Township is looking to bring a small piece of firefighting history back to the township.

The Wilmot Heritage Fire Brigades has started GoFundMe page to help raise money to bring back an old fire truck, a 1948 ford F155 Bickle Seagrave, that was once used by the New Hamburg Fire Department.

The truck was first used in 1948 and was in service until 1978, where it was the town’s station #1 pumper. It was sold and bounced around various owners until it ended up in a private collection in Alberta.

Peter Gingerich is the president of the Wilmot Heritage Brigades, said when the collector passed away, his family reached out to see if they would be interested in taking the truck. He says the goal is to bring it back from Alberta and put it in the museum.

“When we do bring it home, we want to have it completely gone over, including a complete safety check,” said Gingerich. “It will be 100 per cent road worthy, licensed and insured so we can put it onto the highways.”

A hand pulled fire cart and old extinguishers display at the Wilmot Heritage Fire Brigades museum in Baden (Credit: Josh Goeree/570 News Radio)

Gingerich noted the museum in Alberta closed it’s doors in October for the season and will not reopen until the spring. Since being sold, the truck has bounced around owners, and has always been inside a dry museum.

The Wilmot Heritage Fire Brigades is a small non-profit organization that has been operating for 30 years and includes hundreds of pieces of old firefighting memorabilia, including helmets, extinguishers, badges and uniforms.

Gingerich said once the truck is back in Wilmot, it will be put in storage. Currently, the museum has several old hand drawn fire pumpers from the 1920’s, fire trucks from the 1940’s and yellow fire trucks from the 1970’s and 1980’s.

As of November 30, Gingerich says over $4,000 has been raised, including the GoFundMe and private donations.

A link to the GoFundMe can be found here and a link to the Wilmot Heritage Fire Brigade fundraising page can be found here.

The Wilmot Heritage Fire Brigades museum in Baden, along with a 1940 Fargo fire truck for Baden (Credit: Josh Goeree/570 News Radio)