The Dunedin Fire Brigade Restoration Society had its open day yesterday at its site on Main South Rd in Burnside.
More than 25 fire appliances were on display; most were fully restored, and many were more than 70 years old.
Society treasurer Steve McNulty said it was a pleasure to share their collection with the public, especially considering all of the fire trucks had at one stage operated in Dunedin.
"I was a firefighter for 25 years and always vowed one day I’d come back and get involved.
"So I did about four and a-bit years ago.
"There’s a good number of people here that are ex-firefighters, ex-volunteers, or people with an interest."
Mr McNulty said such was the growth in both the society and the inventory held that the group had "big plans" to address the issue.
"It’s been a long time coming. If we want to drive one of these fire appliances out then we have to move all the others.
"It’s exciting but we’ve simply become too big for the site we’re on."
There were several projects on the go at any given time, but Mr McNulty said he had his favourites.
One of them was a 1954 Dennis F12, which had an eight-cylinder Rolls-Royce engine appliance.
"There’s only a few of these left in New Zealand and when we got it back from the lower South Island, it was a total cot case.
"When they were restoring it, they pulled it back to the chassis and rebuilt all the woodwork because the whole thing is cedar ... it’s all wooden frame with alloy covering.
"The guy that’s done all the alloy work is one of our members and he’s had no formal training in doing panel work ...
"He taught himself how to do with some help from Mr Google - and it’s in great nick."
Mr McNulty said during the 1950s, Dennis Specialist Vehicles were among the most popular providers of fire engines in the world.
"They’re just a very, very reliable old fire truck - and they look good too."
He was looking forward to sharing information about the society’s plans once he had everything set up.
