Help us bring home Engine #3!

Mt. Lebanon’s 1932 Pirsch was designed and manufactured as a “City Service Truck,” called a “quad” due to its four primary features: a water tank, pump, hoses, and ground ladders. The purchase of Mt. Lebanon’s first modern aerial ladder truck, around 1950, rendered the Pirsch’s ladder-carrying capacity unnecessary, and the Fire Chief and Director of Public Works oversaw its transformation into an “engine,” cutting a 10-foot section out of the vehicle frame and welding it back together.

The 1932 Pirsch served in Mt. Lebanon until 1967, when it was formally retired and sold to a Michigan collector. In the mid-1990s, it was purchased—and returned to Mt. Lebanon—by two long-time MLFD firefighters, Platoon Chiefs Ed Meyer and Kevin Maehling. With Chief Meyer’s death, in 2021, ownership passed to Chief Maehling, who has generously donated it to the Fire Department, ensuring that this unique vehicle will continue to serve our community as the centerpiece of a permanent exhibit at the Mt. Lebanon Historical Society.