SPFD: 1923 Seagrave fire engine - ‘Bertha’ - comes home

Guadalupe on the Central Coast has proven to be a small town of hidden treasures. The 10-acre set of Cecil B. DeMille’s 1923 mega-production of “The Ten Commandments” is buried deep in the sands, now the focus of a recovery effort.

Much smaller but just as treasured is “Bertha,” a 1923 Seagrave fire engine, the first such motorized unit acquired by the Santa Paula Fire Department and the pride of the Glen City. As years passed and more and more modern equipment was acquired the Seagrave disappeared.

Former Assistant Fire Chief Harold Carpenter spotted the engine in a field on a trip up north in the late 1980s, the Santa Paula painted on its side barely recognizable. In an interview years later Carpenter said, “I couldn’t believe my eyes… ”

Susan Wellman Lazenby, whose grandfather Joe Wellman was a SPFD volunteer firefighter and rode the engine, said she saw the truck herself “In this guy’s backyard… I wanted Steve,” husband SPFD Cpt. Steve Lazenby, to get a loan and purchase the engine, but he told her buying a house was a larger priority.

Santa Paula Engine #1 was eventually purchased and restored by the Montebello Fire Department, where it served for years as display and parade unit.

According to former SPFD Firefighter and historian Bill Nash, the Seagrave replaced a chemical engine the department had, apparatus good enough for small fires but virtually useless against large conflagrations. In Nash’s "Oil, Orchards and Flames – The History of the Santa Paula Fire Department," he writes that the city’s move into the “era of modern fire protection was a cautious one,” and the Signal truck a “bridge between the old and new.”

After the bidding process the city purchased the Model 760 Seagrave Triple Combination Pumper, Hose Wagon and Chemical Engine. The engine was magnificent, a beauty adored in so much finery in the days that even a hose nozzle gleamed like polished brass that firefighters promptly named her “Bertha.”

But “Bertha” soon proved she was no lady when it came to battling fires and after an undetermined number of emergency calls and years of service, she settled into a more refined retirement.

On Wednesday “Bertha” was surrounded by dozens of new admirers as she arrived in Santa Paula from Montebello perched on the back of a large trailer.

The Montebello Fire Chief called SPFD Fire Chief Rick Araiza in February. “He said money was real tight… and did we want the engine?” an offer Araiza said he jumped at. “It was incredibly generous… I’m real excited about it especially as we tried to get it in 1987 after Harold came across it,” slowly falling apart on a Guadalupe property.

Lazenby said an offer was made to the then owner but he wanted more and later Montebello acquired the engine. “My understanding is a private citizen offered” to purchase the engine for the city and have it restored, an effort that included volunteers.