Some Men Never Outgrow Their Love of Fire Trucks
There is an old saying that the difference between men and boys is the price of their toys. For Steve Matalucci and Dave Gervais, the toys are real fire trucks, and they are expensive.
The two Quebecers have spent the last 14 years travelling Eastern Canada, taking photos of fire trucks. If they could have their way, they would gather those photos from fire departments all across Canada.
Matalucci is a bus driver in Montreal, and Gervais a front desk manager in the hotel business in Mont Tremblant. They met through FaceBook where Matalucci says, “There are all kinds of FaceBook sites for fire truck enthusiasts.” Meeting on-line, that’s how they started their trips together.
While Matalucci has six weeks of vacation each year, he and Gervais reserve two weeks to travel eastern Canada in search of older fire trucks.
They have travelled through eastern Ontario, all of Quebec and New Brunswick, and this year they made their first foray into Nova Scotia.
They look for fire trucks built prior to 1990. Trucks of that vintage are becoming more and more rare in the fire service.
They visited a few fire departments in Colchester County, but their real interest was in the truck fleets in Cumberland.
They connected with River Hebert, Tidnish, and Pugwash in search of older vehicles. A number of departments work with newer equipment. The draw in Pugwash was a 1989 Kodiak, outfitted as a pumper. When Robert Carter rolled out the old servant, Gervais said, “This is why we are here,” while Matalucci moved in for a close-up photo of the valve and pumping system.
The two photographers snapped pics of all the trucks in Pugwash, but their blood pressure rose with the presence of the Kodiac. Matalucci is on the left, Gervais to the right, snapping away at the Kodiak.
Matalucci says, “I guess it’s mainly a guy thing. Every guy grows up liking fire trucks, the sirens, the sounds, and all that. You can never be too old to like fire trucks.”
The bus driver estimates he has snapped about twenty thousand photos of fire trucks. When asked if he might publish a book, Matalucci says, “Maybe twenty years from now, maybe when I get a thousand, two thousand fire stations under my belt.”
For now, the two, who became friends through the shared loved of fire trucks, are working their way home to Quebec. Is this their only visit to Nova Scotia? Not likely. If there is a fire truck from the past, they will be back to record it for posterity. After all, what else would a hotel desk clerk and a bus driver do on vacation?