ROCHELLE — This year marks the 100th birthday of the Rochelle Fire Department’s historic 1924 American LaFrance Fire Truck, affectionately known to the community as “Gertie” in parades and at the RFD Museum. 

RFD will be honoring Gertie in a number of ways this year, and the festivities will kick off with the Fireman's Ball on Saturday, April 13, an evening filled with music, dancing and camaraderie. The event will take place at Flight Deck Bar & Grill from 7 p.m. to midnight and the band Project Nostalgia will perform. There will be a 50/50 raffle, commemorative beer cups and a birthday celebration. The ticket price is $10. 

“She's an important, symbolic piece,” RFD Firefighter/Paramedic Ben Johnson said. “I think when people join the fire service, they want to be part of something bigger and leave a place better than you found it. This has been generation after generation of firefighters. This is one of the mainstays that's been a constant that we can contribute to and pass onto the next generation to have pride in and work on together to represent the last 100 years of what we've tried to build. It's being able to put your hands on something that many hands have built. That's pretty powerful.”

Gertie was purchased by the city for a cost of $10,500 ($189,443 adjusted for inflation to today) and delivered on Oct. 17, 1924. Under the supervision of Chief George Henze, Gertie was operated chiefly by Drivers Eli Taylor, Herb Kuemmel and Robert Varner. Its first documented demo was to loft water over the old Central School without touching it during a fire drill. Gertie saw her first fire action on Dec. 1, 1924 at a roof fire at the home of Miss Laura Heath on Ninth Street. She was originally housed at the old city hall (now the Flagg Township Museum) before being moved to new quarters in the Hamaker Building, 316 N. 6th St., (now All Things New & Used).

On May 23, 1926, Gertie was first on-scene at the Morris Kennedy Elevator fire, where high winds spread spot fires to roofs over five blocks away. Departments of Rockford, DeKalb and Amboy were due to respond as well, but ran into issues such as burning out bearings and blowing tires on their fire trucks. That fire saw $30,000 in total damage, about $530,000 in today’s money. 

On June 30, Gertie was called to DeKalb for the American Steel Wire Plant fire, which caused $100,000 in damage ($1.7 million adjusted to today). It was that day that Gertie is said to have made a “record run” of making it to DeKalb in 28 minutes, despite being slowed by heavy Lincoln Highway traffic.

Gertie served as the primary city fire truck from 1924 until the delivery of a new Seagrave engine in 1945. A second American LaFrance engine was purchased in 1947. Gertie’s final documented fire was Feb. 17, 1973, when two simultaneous fires were seen in the 300 block of Lincoln Highway and the 400 block of Cherry Avenue. Gertie is believed to have helped “save” downtown Rochelle at least four times.

“To me, it's striking when we take her in parades,” Johnson said. “She's driving in the downtown area that she's driven for 100 years. The buildings have had businesses come and go, and they still stand as well. She has saved downtown Rochelle at least four times. It would have burned to the ground if it had not been for her and the fire crews.”

Gertie has become a symbol for RFD and its history and a point of pride for current firefighters like Johnson and retired members of the department like Chiefs Brian Johnson and Tom McDermott. Firefighters have worked over the years to keep, store, restore and maintain Gertie.  

“It was there when I started,” Brian Johnson said. “And it's still there. That's important to all of us. She offers the city something. And that's pride. We thought about putting hose on her, and realized that would be stupid. Because that's where the kids sit in parades. And it's just another memorial thing for the firefighters. The old guys can think about it. We've hauled many retired guys in parades. And some for their funerals. It's just very emotional to me.”

Gertie is maintenanced by Wayne Page, a local farmer, who McDermott and Ben Johnson said is the only reason Gertie is still able to be driven in parades. Page has experience with machines like Gertie and can often be found working late on her the night before parades to make sure there won’t be any issues. 

McDermott also works as a historian for the Flagg Township Museum. The greatest mystery the fire truck comes with is the origin of its name. 

“We don't know where the Gertie name came from,” McDermott said. “It just popped up in an old newspaper article once: 'Old Gertie'. I went through every paper leading up to that and never found anything. It's a mystery. We have no idea. I don't know if it was a hit song of the day or named after somebody's old girlfriend. But it's always been Gertie.”

Ben Johnson called RFD and city’s ability to keep Gertie over the years “remarkable”, especially due the fact that she made it through a world war when items like old fire trucks were being scrapped to help in the war effort. With vocal support from RFD, the city made the choices over the years to ensure Gertie could continue to live on as a symbol for the history of firefighting locally. 

“People wonder when it isn't in a parade,” McDermott said. “It's just like the fire department, in a way. Nobody cares until it's not there. They know it's there and the fire department's there. They know it's going to be there when they need it. It's for those parades. It's for those homecoming weeks. People don't want to ride on one of the new trucks. They want to ride on Gertie. And it's there. It's always been there. That's her job now. For parades and for taking firefighters that pass away to their funerals.”