Alissa Keller, Executive Director of the Museum, and Battalion Chief Phillip Ferguson will present on the history of the American LaFrance pumper, its current conservation efforts, and its role in one of the most dramatic fires in Hopkinsville’s history.

On January 21, 1928, the City of Hopkinsville received an American LaFrance 1,000-gallon-per-minute pumper that would serve as its first-run truck until 1940. The city sold the truck to John W. “Woody” Winfree on June 20, 1968, and Winfree presented it to the Pennyroyal Area Museum in 2004. Members of the Hopkinsville Fire Department have carefully and diligently conserved the truck and will return it to the Woody Winfree Fire-Transportation Museum (formerly the Central Fire Station). A public reception will be held on Friday, August 2 from 5:30-7:00pm.

The 1928 American LaFrance pumper was the first-run truck on Sunday, August 4, 1940 when a fire broke out in the attic of the Hotel Latham. Learn more about this iconic structure and its tragic destruction and watch rarely-seen film footage of the fire.