Fullerton Fire Chief’s Collection of Toy Trucks Goes Back to Leather-Hat Days

“Some people climb mountains,” said Fullerton Fire Chief Ron J. Coleman. “I happen to collect fire trucks.” And you can add patches, stamps, fire helmets and everything else.

But the 3,000-piece fire truck collection valued at about $200,000 that he shares with State Fire Marshal Raymond Russell of Corona is more than a personal indulgence.

“A lot of changes have been introduced through the use of toys,” said Coleman, who keeps half the collection in his San Clemente home, “and the best way to predict the future is to examine the past.”

He noted that roll-up doors on fire trucks was one change that came from a toy.

Some of his miniature fire trucks date back to the 1800s and many items in the collection have been sent by fire chiefs from throughout the world. The last model was sent from Argentina.

What makes the collection important, Coleman said, “is that the toy fire trucks give us an overture to talk to people about fire safety. The toys become the medium for communication and gives us a chance to prevent some real tragedies.”

Coleman not only has written books on fire tactics that are used in cities throughout the country, but he has also written two books on toy fire trucks.

Coleman said his interest in fire trucks started early when he lived next to a firehouse, “but I’ve always have been curious and interested in collecting memorabilia.”

In addition to the trucks, the two firemen have one of the largest fire helmet collections in the state, and both Coleman and Russell, a former fire captain stationed in Laguna Hills, are designing one made of leather, as it was in earlier days.

“A lot of what we’re using today, we used yesterday,” Russell pointed out, “and part of it is due to tradition. I like to say we have 200 years of tradition uninterrupted by modern technology.” Coleman said he and Russell hope to set up their own museum or interest others in establishing a permanent exhibit to show them to the public, especially to children.

National Toastmistresses, which has the goal of training people to talk confidently in public, has changed its name to International Training in Communication. Laurel Shaw, president of the Fullerton chapter, said the new name was one way of ending the confusion with the Toastmaster’s Club.

The new name, she said, “clearly defines our role.” Shaw said men are welcome to join.

Carol Kulok, 41, of Cypress, said she’s “scared to death of the Big C (cancer) and I’m going to give it one helluva try” to quit smoking her daily two packs of cigarettes. Like many others, she started today in the Cancer Society’s Great American Smokeout.

“I started smoking back in Pennsylvania (27 years ago) behind a billboard sign,” she said, “and would you believe the advertising was for Camel cigarettes?”

To prepare for the loss of something to do with her hands, she has started crocheting, and her daughters Lisa, 20, a nonsmoker, and Linda, 17, who quit two weeks ago, have vowed their support. She has been adopted by a co-worker at Fluor Corp. to give her encouragement for her all-out attempt to stop smoking.

“Stopping smoking is something I know I want to do, but I’m very apprehensive even though we have a family history of cancer,” she said. “My father smoked cigarettes, and he died from lung cancer when I was 10.”

She once tried to quit and lasted two weeks “and then I would try to fool myself by cutting back. I would end up smoking more,” she said. “This time I hope I can make it.”

“It was just something that happened,” said Yorba Linda’s Connie Mesko, after her husband, John Mesko, bid $150 for an 11-pound bar of Belgium chocolate at an auction to aid the Girls Club of North Orange County.

“We do love chocolate,” she said. “We’ll eat some and give some away.”

And as an afterthought: “Maybe we’ll throw a chocolate party.”

Acknowledgments--Continuing a tradition, Chad McHenry, 14, of Santa Ana, will become the family’s fifth Eagle Scout at a Court of Honor on Tuesday. His four brothers will all be present for the ceremony.