From storms to blazes to parades, this firefighter on wheels served community for much of a century
ABOVE: Old Betsy was new to Boca Raton in 1926 when the station was at Old Town Hall. Photo provided by the Boca Raton Historical Society
BELOW: Betsy now resides at Fire Station No. 3 on State Road A1A near Palmetto Park Road. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
By Ron Hayes
Boca Raton’s oldest fire engine turns 100 next April, but it’s been “Old Betsy” from the day it was born.
On Oct. 21, 1925, the Boca Raton Town Council approved a check for $1,000, the down payment on a $12,500 engine to be built by the American LaFrance Fire Engine Co. of Elmira, New York.
It would be 20 feet 1 inch long, 6 feet 2½ inches wide, and 9 feet 1 inch tall.
It would weigh 9,050 pounds, minus the firemen, hose and water.
It would pump 750 gallons per minute.
It would be unloaded at the town’s railroad station on April 20, 1926, to the delight of elementary school children excused from class to watch.
And it would be called Old Betsy.
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Why not Old Nancy? Old Mary? Old Sue?
“Old Betsy meant reliable,” says Thomas Wood, who retired in December 2021 after 15 years as the city’s eighth fire chief. “All fire engines are Old Betsy.
“We know of at least 10 other departments that have an Old Betsy.”
Venice, Florida, has an Old Betsy, and so does Stockton, California.
Davy Crockett fans may wonder if the nickname was borrowed from that other Old Betsy, Crockett’s fabled rifle, but no connection has been established.
Except of course that both rifle and fire engine were famously reliable.
Old Betsy the fire engine was already 48 and retired from active duty when Wood joined the department in June 1974. Now in his own retirement, Wood has been studying the century-long history of Fire Engine No. 1, and on June 11, he shared that history with a full house at a Town Hall Talk in the Schmidt Boca Raton History Museum (the city’s Old Town Hall).
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“Our first two fire chiefs were volunteers,” he said.
Guy Bender served from 1925 to 1934, and Clifford Purdom from 1934 to 1946.
In fact, the entire department consisted of volunteers, and they were paid more in respect and gratitude than money.
The chief was paid $150 a year, the assistant chief $8 a month, and the volunteer firemen $4 per fire and $2 for each drill they attended.
The first paid chief was John F. Loughery (1946-1964), who painted Old Betsy white to match his white hair.
During its almost 100 years, Old Betsy has been painted white, red, white, and finally red again, Wood said.
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ABOVE: After the 1926 hurricane, Old Betsy responded to a hotel fire in Hollywood and pumped flood water for more than 100 hours. Photo provided by the Boca Raton Historical Society
The engine had been in service five months when it worked its first big job.
In September 1926, a Category 4 hurricane struck South Florida, killing more than 370 people in Miami and Moore Haven. Old Betsy responded to a hotel fire in Hollywood and pumped flood water for more than 100 hours.
It was not Old Betsy’s last encounter with a killer storm.
On Aug. 24, 1992, while Betsy was being restored in a barn down in Homestead, Hurricane Andrew roared through South Florida.
The man restoring the engine was able to move it to a warehouse in Florida City before the 165-mph winds hit.
“When we went down to see the damage later,” Wood recalled, “the tarpaper roof had been torn off the warehouse and the top panel of the garage door was blown in. We borrowed a ladder and looked over the top and were able to see Old Betsy was fine.”
Old Betsy fought its last major fire at 10:36 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 16, 1967, when hot tar set the roof of the San Remo’s Villa Verona ablaze, under construction at the time.
A workman was trapped on the roof when the city’s tallest ladder couldn’t reach the top of the five-story building. A smaller ladder had to be raised from a balcony below.
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Old Betsy was more than 40 years old, and retired from active duty the following year, to be rewarded with the honor all Old Betsys receive: fire department competitions and holiday parades.
At the Tampa Fire Department’s 1995 centennial celebration, it won Best Restored To Original and first place in the balloon race for breaking balloons with its hose.
For the city’s residents, Old Betsy’s appearance at the holiday parade became an annual tradition — and for one in particular, a final bow.
Among the first volunteers to join the new department was Francis M. Thomason, only 19 when he volunteered in 1927. You can see him standing, third from the right, in a photo of Old Betsy taken that August.
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He served as a firefighter until the early 1950s and, years later, when The Boca Raton News asked him to recall the most memorable fire he had ever fought, Thomason didn’t hesitate.
“My house!”
One evening when his house caught fire, he ran over to the City Hall, which also served as the fire station, and drove Old Betsy home to put out the fire.
Thomason rode one last time on Old Betsy in the city’s 1995 holiday parade and died on Sept. 4, 1997. He was 89, and Old Betsy was 71.
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That 1995 parade was Old Betsy’s last appearance in the holiday parade.
On Nov. 1, 2001, Old Betsy was added to the National Register of Historic Places. In 2024, a state historic marker was unveiled outside Boca Raton Fire Rescue Station No. 3 — Old Betsy’s current home — on State Road A1A south of Palmetto Park Road.
More than 60 people attended retired Fire Chief Thomas Wood’s talk about Betsy in June. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
Old Betsy is almost 100 years old, after all, and not the spry young firefighter that arrived in 1926, exciting the local school children.
“It’s missing a water pump, and has a cracked head,” Wood said, “so it hasn’t run in several years. We’ve found a company in Pennsylvania that manufactures the parts to either repair or replace the head.”
Repairs would cost less than $10,000, Wood estimated.
“I spoke with the chief earlier this week, and he spoke with the city manager, but the wheels of government do run slow.”
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