MARFA — Engine 22, a 1977 Chevrolet cherry red fire engine, is coming out of retirement to once again serve the town’s citizens through the Marfa Volunteer Fire Department.
Fire Chief Gary Mitschke said he isn’t sure exactly when the truck was first purchased by the department, but it was sent off for restoration in September of 2022 after sustaining damage as a result of being stored outdoors. (The fire department has since expanded its indoor storage.)
Other than a deteriorating paint job and some mechanical issues, the old engine performed well, he said, and was only out of service for five years before being sent off for a makeover. “This is an old truck, but it’s still a good pumper,” Mitschke said. “I think we’ll get a lot more years of service out of it, keeping it up and maintaining it.”
Mitschke — cognizant of the modest fire department budget — pursued a contract between the City of Marfa and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to have the fire engine repaired by inmates at Huntsville State Prison, specifically the Ellis Unit Bus Barn team, which primarily refurbishes old school buses for parades.
“They did a great job,” Mitschke said. “They repainted the whole thing, fixed what they could cosmetically, inside and outside. They serviced the engine for us and repaired anything that was wrong with it. And I think they checked the pump too.”
The cost to repair Engine 22, minus transportation costs, was $8,700, compared to hundreds of thousands of dollars it would have cost the department to purchase a new truck, Mitschke said. Mac and Julie White helped keep project costs down by donating transportation services.
The pumper returned to Marfa last week after its two-year hiatus and now sits indoors at the fire station. On Monday, volunteer fire fighters washed the truck and filled up its gas tank. Engine 22 will serve as a back up pumper and may eventually be a part of a strategy to station emergency response vehicles on either side of the railroad tracks in case of an emergency.