VIDEO/PHOTOS: Like everything else, the price of a fire engine is going up. Some of them cost more than a million dollars now and they have a limited lifespan. “Usually for an engine we look at 10 years, ladder trucks around 15,” says Andrew Pepe, interim fire chief in Brooksville. But there’s a focus here on one firetruck that’s 100 years old. “It’s a sense of pride that this is the symbol of the fire department for the City of Brooksville,” says District Chief Donnie Nichols. The truck they are proud of is a 1925 American Lafrance. It was the top of the line when the city bought it new. They paid $12 thousand dollars for it. That was a lot of money back then. “There was a lot of opposition to spending 12 thousand dollars,” says Suzanne Touchton of the Hernando Historical Museum Association.
