Collector Finds It Hard to Resist Song of the Sirens

Jo Jo Ortiz doesn’t play with little red toy fire trucks like other 3-year-olds might. He plays with the real thing because his father, Joe Ortiz, keeps 14 real fire trucks and ambulances in their Shadow Hills backyard.

Joe Ortiz began collecting toy trucks when he was 7, but now, 33 years later, his collection includes 16 real fire engines and ambulances dating from 1932 to 1970, all restored to working condition. He keeps two of the vehicles in Arcadia at the Reliant Fire Company, a group of young firefighters-to-be that Ortiz helps to sponsor.

“To some people it’s junk, but to me it’s a gold mine.”

‘I Keep the Life in Them’

“I don’t sell them, I just keep them and keep the life in them,” Ortiz said. “Some people call this the rest home for fire engines.”

Although his work as fire department ambulance driver for Fire Station 75 in Mission Hills is serious business, a drive in one of his fire engines is strictly for pleasure.

“Sometimes I just take a spin,” Ortiz said. “Maybe toot the siren.” He has appeared in more than 200 parades.

Ortiz has more than just emergency vehicles. His treasures also include helmets, axes, clothing and sirens. So, when he hits the street with his 1936 Ford fire engine, he dresses the part--in an old fire jacket and engineer’s cap from the decade.

Also Has Two Dalmatians

Of course, the picture is not complete without his two Dalmatians, Kelly and Hah. Hah, who is deaf, got his name from his expression, which Ortiz said always seems to ask, “Hah?”

Ortiz bought his first ambulance 12 years ago.

“I just had that one rig in mind,” he said. But he found it hard to say no when other ambulances and trucks became available. “Over the years, all this equipment just shows up. It has gotten to where I have to refuse old fire engines.

“I do it for the fun of it,” Ortiz explained. “I enjoy going down the street making people happy. I like to see people smiling and waving.”

But the biggest joy comes from the children. “The crippled children have such a smile on their faces. It’s beautiful to have those kids in wheelchairs who never thought they would ride on a big red fire engine.

“It’s torture for little kids to see a sign that says, ‘Keep Off.’ What’s a fire engine if you can’t get on it?”

Ortiz was selected for the second annual Community Protectors Award from the Los Angeles Fire Department for outstanding community service in 1985, partly for his work with handicapped and underprivileged children.

He does not put a dollar value on his collection, but some engines have cost him as much as $2,900. The price of maintenance is much cheaper: a few cases of beer for the volunteers who donate time and services to repair the fleet.

Ortiz tries to restore the trucks as accurately as possible by talking to “old-timers” and studying history books and photographs to find out what the equipment looked like when they screeched down city streets years ago.

For one of his favorites, a 1954 Cadillac ambulance, he consulted only his memory. He first saw the vehicle going down Olympic Boulevard when he was about 10 years old and he said then: “Look at that neat, ugly ambulance.”

“It was the ugliest emergency vehicle ever,” he recalled. In fact, Ortiz said, the ambulance was called the “pregnant guppy” because it had a “great big ugly bubble top,” instead of the usual boxy ambulances of the day.

A few years ago, he found it parked on the street as he was driving through Highland Park.

“I slammed on my brakes and almost hit a tree,” Ortiz said. “Needless to say, the next day it was in my driveway.”