Hot Stuff : Battalion Chief Builds Showcase of Fire Department Memorabilia

Pat Aust is one of those people who brings his work home with him.

But unlike other people who pull their work out of their briefcases and spread it over a dining room table, Aust spreads his throughout his house and 12-car garage.

Aust, a battalion chief in the Redondo Beach Fire Department, brings home antique fire engines, alarms, fire extinguishers, sirens, helmets--anything that has to do with firefighting--even a fire pole.

Aust is making his home look like a turn-of-the-century fire station “just to be different.”

He has three antique fire engines--a 1918 vehicle that was the first on Santa Catalina Island, a 1919 unit that was Inglewood’s first, and a rusty one from 1923 out of Bakersfield that he used for parts for the Inglewood engine. All were manufactured by American La France.

He recently sold Redondo Beach’s first engine--a 1920 truck that he restored--but he would not say for how much.

Aust also owns a 1938 Ford sedan delivery--similar to a small van--that he restored like an old fire chief’s car. The whitewalls are five inches wide. He used 15 coats of paint on the bright red sedan and topped it off with gold leaf letters that simply read Fire Department.

The interior of the wheel wells are so clean that you can see yourself in the black paint, and Aust said the bottom of the vehicle reflects just as clearly. Ford made only 2,000 of the sedan deliveries that year and only 15 still exist, according to Aust.

‘All Original’

“I have the best one,” he boasted. “Most of them are all hot rods; (mine is) all original.”

Aust’s antique vehicle collection began with automobiles and he still has nine--most of which are painted red or black. His collection includes a maroon 1929 Ford Model A roadster with a tan cloth top, and a red and white ’55 Chevy Nomad station wagon.

He keeps most of his collection in his 12-foot-high, 2,600-square-foot garage that is attached to his North Redondo Beach home. The two garage doors are 10 feet tall and look just like those at fire stations.

Aust does all the work on the vehicles himself, except for upholstery and chrome.

Two unfinished fire engines buried under old vehicle parts and an unpainted, 1935 Auburn convertible are in the back of the garage, waiting to be restored. The fire engines need to be painted and then reassembled with the 1,200 chrome pieces Aust has stored in cabinets.

But Aust said those projects are on hold until he finishes the interior of the 2,500-square-foot addition to his house, which is now 4,000 square feet, not including the garage.

He may put the fire pole next to a stairway, but because of building codes it cannot be used, he said. The house, primarily done in Victorian style, has been on the city’s historical home tour for the past two years.

“I’ve got enough projects to keep me going until I’m 80,” said Aust, 39. The house should be finished in about a year, he said, and the fire engines in about two.

His collection of firefighting paraphernalia includes 40 helmets, the oldest a leather one from 1870; 30 fire alarm boxes representing all 19 styles made since the mid-1800s; three fire engine bells; fire grenades, which were used in place of sprinkler heads until the 1940s, and hundreds of extinguishers.

He has numerous models of fire trucks and antique cars and fire department and emergency signs displayed throughout the house.

No Dalmatian

On his rear driveway, he has a 1901 rusted fire hose cart that belonged to the Southern California Gas Co. and was pulled by humans or horses.

The only thing missing in his collection is a Dalmatian. “We had a Dalmatian,” Aust said. “It was the dumbest dog in the world. It ate everything--plastic, metal, wood.” So he gave the dog to another firefighter who lives on a ranch and got a Rottweiler instead.

As a reminder of Aust’s days as a city electrician before he joined the Fire Department, a four-way traffic light hangs above one of the partially disassembled fire engines in his garage.

Aust said he is looking for a 1930 or ’31 two-door Phaeton--similar to a sedan without a top--to add to his car collection. “What I’m trying to do is get every body style. I have a station wagon, a sedan, a roadster. I had a ’44 coupe--I sold that one and now I’m looking for a ’34 coupe.”

Aust joked that his collection started because of “insanity.” He said he has had about 40 antique cars since he began restoring them while in high school. He bought his first fire engine shortly after becoming a firefighter in 1970.

He has sold only four cars and one fire engine since 1974.

Thousands of Hours

Aust said he spent thousands of hours on his antique collection but cannot estimate how much money he has spent. He spends an average of four to six months restoring each vehicle, although he finished the fire chief’s car--his favorite--in only 84 days.

He goes to Hershey, Pa., each year for the nation’s largest antique car show and swap meet and travels all over the country looking for parts, he said.

Aust estimates that his collection would be worth several hundred thousand dollars if he were to sell it. But, he said, he intends to keep all of the vehicles, except the old Bakersfield engine that he stripped for parts.

He plans to eventually pass on his collection to his two children.

“We’ll sell them,” volunteered his 18-year-old daughter, Jennifer, though she quickly lets her father know that she’s “just kidding.”

Even with a 12-car garage, none of the vehicles the family drives on a daily basis go inside--not even his wife’s 1988 Mercury station wagon.

“My wife’s a little upset about that,” Aust said. “She’s had two brand-new cars that have never gotten in the garage.”