1984 American LaFrance fire engine owned by Ronnie Yankey, driven in the 2023 Lakewood Fourth of July Parade. Photo by Renee Umsted.
A 1984 American LaFrance fire engine carrying a few members of the Woodrow Wilson High School class of 1970 was one of the leaders of this year’s Lakewood Fourth of July Parade.
The fire engine belongs to Ronnie Yankey, a Woodrow graduate from the class of 1970 who was driving the engine.
It came to Dallas Fire Station 17 in September 1984, just a few months after it was built, and the Lakewood Fire Station, as it is commonly known, kept it for about 20 years.
Afterward, it was sold to the volunteer fire department in Detroit, Texas, and they kept it for about 20 years.
Yankey — who was a firefighter in Irving for 36 years, retiring as a captain — purchased the fire engine earlier this year.
Driving it in the Lakewood parade was something he knew he wanted to do when he bought it.
1984 American LaFrance taken at Dallas fire Station 17 at Skillman and Belmont. Photo courtesy of Ronnie Yankey.
Dallas Fire-Rescue Station 17 has participated in the Lakewood parade for years. This year, Yankey made plans to meet at the station at Skillman and Belmont, where the fire trucks could be decorated, and then they’d all leave for the parade together. Yankey had barely pulled into the driveway when the firefighters started wiping down his engine and its tires.
When it was time for the parade to start, Yankey assumed the other fire trucks would lead the parade. But they insisted that he go first.
Don’t be surprised if you see Yankey’s engine at the parade next year, carrying the Woodrow alumni.
“It sounds like the class is already planning on it,” Yankey said.
Yankey grew up in the Buckner Terrace area near Interstate 30 and Jim Miller Road. His father was a Dallas firefighter based at the old Station 1 at Ross Avenue and Leonard Street, and he retired as captain from the department just a few months before Yankey was hired in Irving.
The old Station 17 fire engine, which is stored at the Texas Fire Museum in West Dallas, is one of five that Yankey owns. A 1953 Ahrens-Fox that his dad rode as a Dallas firefighter started the collection. He also has two 1947 Ahrens-Fox engines formerly used by the Dallas fire department and one 1947 Ahrens-Fox from Baden, Pennsylvania.
“It’s kind of addicting,” said Yankey, who’s on the board of advisers for the Dallas Firefighter’s Museum.
Ronnie Yankey’s dad, on the left, and his crew receive an award from the Dallas fire chief. They stand in front of a 1953 Ahrens-Fox engine that Yankey owns. Photo courtesy of Ronnie Yankey.
