CIRCLEVILLE – Great Neck native Lenny Motchkavitz, now 83, was only 19 years old when the Great Neck Fire Department's 1947 American LaFrance Pumper was dispatched for its first call in December 1946.

He reminisced about the truck and his career as a firefighter. "It was very unusual.  We had a very cold, wintery night.  We had a gas explosion in a house, and they called for an extra pumper.  This one has flood lights.  There was no such thing as flood lights then (on houses).  So we had to turn the generator on and get the flood lights going.  So we got on the scene and that's what we used that night on that particular fire."

Octogenarian Motchkavitz, still an active driver in the department, transported the antique over 100 miles on a trailer with fellow fire department member Tom Madigan to the Catskill Firecats 33rd Annual Fire Truck Muster & Show in at a makeshift fire apparatus museum in Circleville.

The truck was refurbished in 1990 at the American LaFrance facility in Dunmore, Pennsylvania, and entered its first show in New York City for the city's 125th anniversary.

The antique pumper took three prizes at the Catskill Firecats' muster and show, including Longest Distance for a Trailered Apparatus, Top 10 Fire Department Owned Apparatus, and Best of Show.

The Catskill Firecats, a local branch of a national fire apparatus preservation corporation, have a makeshift museum off Exit 119 on State Route 17, and has been working towards gaining approvals from the local planning board and the New York State Department of Health in getting an official museum off the ground.  Firecats representative Bruce Zarzeski, also owner of 53 of the 247 fire apparatus currently in the warehouse, said they are making progress. 

"We were able to acquire a zoning change.  It was previously zoned warehouse industrial.  They changed our exact designation to fire apparatus museum.  That is the current designation, and it has now gone back to the planning board.  We now have to meet some of the state and local fire and building code requirements – a sprinkler system and things along that nature.  We are well on the way to having this as a museum."

Nearly 100 fire trucks and engines were entered into the show, owned by both fire departments and individuals.  The 1947 pumper shared Best of Show with the oldest motorized fire apparatus at the show, its father figure, a 1915 American LaFrance pumper.

Zarzeski said interest in the show has increased every year since they started it. "Many (shows) have come and gone, but this is probably one of the biggest in the Hudson Valley."