Long Island Fire Truck Gets Big Welcome At New Home In Ireland

DUBLIN, IRELAND — A beloved firetruck from Long Island got a warm Irish welcome on Monday as it arrived in Dublin, Ireland, where it was greeted by members of the Dublin Fire Brigade which provided an escort to its new home with a collector who shows vehicles at charity events.

Trusty Ladder 5211, which helped bring multiple people to safety in a dramatic rescue from a 1993 apartment complex fire and stood by after the 9/11 terror attacks, was purchased from the City of Glen Cove by Dublin-based collector Liam Moore, who told Virgin Media News he already has two pumper trucks and wanted a ladder truck to add to his collection.

“Well, that’s what it is, right, life is short, and I wanted one,” said Moore of the truck, which dwarfed that of its Irish counterparts as it made its way along the quays of the Irish capital. “This came up at the right place, at the right time.”

The truck was transported to Moore’s home, where it will stay temporarily, the outlet reported.

“Look at it — would you like it in your garden?” he joked with reporter Rob O’Hanrahan.

He was told by organizers of the escort that the truck was “flanked by a blue run” that was the largest the country has seen since the visit of Barack Obama.

The truck also received a stateside send-off like no other — complete with all the bells and whistles — back in March. The first chief to ever drive it, former chief Thomas Cross, had multiple police escorts, including Nassau County police, the New York Police Department and Port Authority Police as he drove it on its final U.S. run through various jurisdictions until the Port of Newark where it was loaded on a ship bound for Europe.

Glen Cove Fire Chief Marvin Tate described the send-off as awesome. "It could not have happened to a better truck,” he said.

In an interview with Echo.ie in April, Moore noted that at 50-foot long Ladder 5211 is the biggest in his collection. It requires two drivers, one at the front and another at the back, and it has a ladder that stretches 100 feet into the air, the outlet reported.

“There is nothing like it here in Ireland or Europe and it’s big and unusual and that’s why I wanted it. Unusual is what we look for. You don’t see them going around Dublin,” Moore told the outlet.