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Partly cloudy. Low 56F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph..

Partly cloudy. Low 56F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph.

This 1967 GMC pumper fire truck from Hartford City was recently located in Huasca del Ocampo, a small town in the state of Hidalgo in Mexico. The truck was donated to a fire department in Mexico through the Rotary Club in 2006.

Olivia Rusk, who is teaching English at a small university outside of Oaxaca City in Mexico on a Fulbright Grant was surprised to find this 1967 GMC pumper fire truck from Hartford City while exploring the countryside near Huasca del Ocampo, a small town in the state of Hidalgo in Mexico. The truck was donated to a fire department in Mexico through the Rotary Club in 2006.

Here are a couple of maps to give an idea of where in Mexico the truck was and where it ended up. It left Crawfordsville in 2006; it was donated to a department in Molango de Escamilla. It was found earlier this year sitting in a parking lot in Huasca del Ocampo, a small town about 70 miles Southeast of Molango.

Here are a couple of maps to give an idea of where in Mexico the truck was and where it ended up. It left Crawfordsville in 2006; it was donated to a department in Molango de Escamilla. It was found earlier this year sitting in a parking lot in Huasca del Ocampo, a small town about 70 miles Southeast of Molango.

This 1967 GMC pumper fire truck from Hartford City was recently located in Huasca del Ocampo, a small town in the state of Hidalgo in Mexico. The truck was donated to a fire department in Mexico through the Rotary Club in 2006.

Olivia Rusk, who is teaching English at a small university outside of Oaxaca City in Mexico on a Fulbright Grant was surprised to find this 1967 GMC pumper fire truck from Hartford City while exploring the countryside near Huasca del Ocampo, a small town in the state of Hidalgo in Mexico. The truck was donated to a fire department in Mexico through the Rotary Club in 2006.

Here are a couple of maps to give an idea of where in Mexico the truck was and where it ended up. It left Crawfordsville in 2006; it was donated to a department in Molango de Escamilla. It was found earlier this year sitting in a parking lot in Huasca del Ocampo, a small town about 70 miles Southeast of Molango.

Here are a couple of maps to give an idea of where in Mexico the truck was and where it ended up. It left Crawfordsville in 2006; it was donated to a department in Molango de Escamilla. It was found earlier this year sitting in a parking lot in Huasca del Ocampo, a small town about 70 miles Southeast of Molango.

2020 Indiana University Graduate Olivia Rusk was in Hidalgo Mexico earlier this year as an English Teaching Assistant for COMEXUS Fulbright-Garcia Robles. One day she was out exploring nearby towns. When she got off of a bus, she noticed an old fire truck sitting in a nearby parking lot. “My dad loves old vehicles so I went over to get some photos to send to him,” she said. “When I got closer, I was shocked,” continued Rusk. “The markings on the truck said ‘Hartford City Fire Department!” 

“How did a fire truck from Hartford City end up in a parking lot in a small town in Mexico,  thousands of miles away,” she thought. “I grew up in Fort Wayne. My dad now lives in Marion, and we’re familiar with the area,” explained Rusk. “I sent the photos to my father and he contacted former Hartford City Fire Chief, Ron Parrott.”

It turns out that the truck, a 1967 GMC XTM8 fire truck, and some other fire fighting equipment was donated to a fire department in Molango de Escamilla in the State of Hidalgo, about 70 miles Northwest of Huasca de Ocampo where Olivia found the truck, through a Rotary Club project in 2006.

“Someone from the Rotary Club came in and asked if we had any equipment that we could donate for their project,” explained Parrott. “It just happened that we were preparing to decommission the truck and they were interested,” he continued. 

The truck was the fifth truck sent from Indiana to help establish fire departments in Mexican towns that had little or no fire fighting equipment. This “Mexican Initiative’’ of Rotary International began in 2002 when Rotary International Chairman Claude Johnson of Crawfordsville read a newspaper article where Mexican President Vincente Fox was asking for people to “adopt poor Mexican villages.” Johnson and the Rotary Club in Crawfordsville began a discussion that eventually led to the idea to donate fire fighting equipment.

While the trucks were older, they were still in working order and could be put to good use. The first three trucks were delivered to Mexico in February of 2006. 20 Rotarians took the trip along with these trucks to visit the towns that were receiving their gift. The Hartford City truck was part of the second shipment of the program that left Crawfordsville in October of 2006. 

The trucks were taken 1,266 miles to Laredo, Texas where Johnson’s Mexican counterpart would locate communities in need of the truck. Sadly, Johnson passed away in 2018, but as a result of his actions, Rotary Clubs all over the country are still donating trucks to small Fire Departments in Mexico. 

How the truck from Hartford City ended up in a parking lot 70 miles from the town it was donated to is still a mystery, but it is interesting to know that a piece of equipment that saved lives here and was about to be decommissioned got further use and likely saved many lives thousands of miles away.

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Partly cloudy. Low 56F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph.

Partly cloudy. Low 56F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph.

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