Welcome to Fire Rides Incorporated, founded October 2006. Our business is creating special memories through a different kind of entertainment. Riding a fire truck is something unique we’ve all wanted to do as children and now we can. Having the fire truck at a special location can also be great advertising or an incredible attention getter. At the risk of sounding like a MasterCard® commercial, the memories and photos are priceless!!

The history of Fire Rides Inc. arose out of a dream of mine to own my own business while having fun. As a professional firefighter, many people would come into our fire house and ask if anyone rented fire engines for parties. Unfortunately, we didn’t have anyone to recommend, and of course we couldn’t rent out our publicly owned fire apparatus. So for the past few years, I’ve been saving and looking for the perfect fire engine for Fire Rides Inc. I found the fire engine on EBay® , but it was located in Wisconsin. Through a leap of faith, I purchased the fire engine sight unseen. There it sat for another month until the engine was shipped to New York. The 1982 Ford Pirsh fire engine arrived on a nice, hot, sunny day in August 2006 in the exact condition the seller stated.

Aside from registering and insuring the “rig”, the custom work didn’t start until the spring of 2007. This was when my wife Tracy showed just how understanding, supportive and selfless one can be. I would not have been able to do the seemingly unending number of tasks required to customize the rig and start the business. Tracy’s support and ideas were essential in keeping me going though some of the challenging times.

I would also like to thank a few others who had the patience (to put up with me) and the skill to help me create Fire Rides Inc.:

Mr. Murphy of Murphy’s Automotive Speed & Custom in Dover Plains, NY.      Mr. Murphy was very gracious in allowing me to store the rig at his shop during the water tank removal and bench seating framework phase. Mr. Murphy showed great patience with my many questions and thoughts.

Rick, from Ricklyn Steel Fabricators in Carmel, NY.  Rick showed great understanding and craftsmanship in developing and constructing my design ideas for the stairs.

The Dutch Work Shop in Pleasant Valley, NY. Their ideas and generations of experience came through in the quality of the seating.

Finally a thank you to Craig Stofko, “my on call automotive tech.”  Craig’s experience and explanation of electric and engine mechanicals alleviated much of my ignorance toward that end.