WALLKILL—Most people don’t realize that private citizens can own fire trucks, says Luke Payntar Jr., a Pawling resident who has a collection of about 200 of them.
“Alright, maybe like 190,” he said. “I’m not really sure how many I own.”
He and 90-some other fire apparatus enthusiasts have joined together in a club called the Fairchester Hose Haulers whose headquarters are in a warehouse in Wallkill that is owned by one of their most active members, Andrew Leider. The Hose Haulers are part of a national organization called the Society for the Preservation & Appreciation of Antique Motor Fire Apparatus in America or SPAAMFAA for short, which has a chapter in almost all 50 states.
When asked how many engines Leider has in his multiple warehouses, Payntar has a hard time pinning down a number.
“He’s coming up on 600 fire trucks,” he said.
“He’s really got to be the best, [most] well-known fire collector in the country,” he added.
“In the world,” corrected 58-year SPAAMFAA member and Middletown resident Robert Reynolds.
In the afternoon of Aug. 5, the Wallkill warehouse had a few hundred trucks, which are variously owned by Hose Hauler members, Payntar, Leider, and the club itself. They range from a 1916 American LaFrance to ones just out of the firehouse, and come in all shades of red and a rainbow of other colors.
One thing they all have in common, said Payntar, is that they’re all unique. “To the fire trucks enthusiast people, they would say these trucks have character,” he said.
Most of them were custom-made for the fire companies they served, or were made in such small numbers that they are very rare, he said.
