Vintage Fire Truck: White 1918

My family was recently out to visit me. They live in Norway (cold country, next to Sweden ... invented the paper clip.... you get the picture), so we try to find things to show them when they come out. This time, we had an opportunity to show them the Travel Town museum @ Griffith Park.

I have been there before and I wrote a blog about their 1918 Mack dump truck that they have there. (If you missed it, you can see it here, it's a pretty neat truck). Well, I was so focused on the Mack that time that I completely missed the equally vintage 1918 White fire truck that was standing in the corner.
I spotted it this time, but unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me. Luckily my brother, the photographer, came to the rescue and snapped some shots of the fire truck for me. (Unfortunately my brother isn't as passionate about this truck as me, so I may return with more detailed photos of this truck later, if I happen to go back to the musem....) (PS. He got some very good shots of the trains though .... maybe if I feel like doing a non-truck blog at some point, I'll share a few :))

Anyway, this 1918 truck is a fire truck that was built by the White Company. At the time they were one of the foremost truck builders in the country. The truck was used by Shell to carry equipment such as hoses, ladders and fire extinguishers, to the scene of a fire. There was a large chemical tank underneath the driver's seat, and water would be pumped through this tank, thereby adding chemicals to the water itself, which would then be more efficient in extinguishing fires.
The truck was used to fight fires in Santa Fe Springs, Huntington Beach and Long Beach oil fields that were owned by Shell.

Here are some photos of the truck, and like I said, I will bring my camera should opportunity present itself once more for me to go out there, and take some more detailed photos.

A view from the driver's seat.

A glimpse of the tire... quite different from what you see on firetrucks today.

Here's a photo of a photo of the White fire truck ;-) (Along with the description, which is where I got my info about the truck from...)

Sideview of the firetruck

Sideview of the firetruck

A view of the grill

Another view of the grill

I love these old trucks, if anybody has tips or info on other vintage trucks, feel free to alert me! :-)