American LaFrance Tractor-Drawn Aerial Ladder, Tucson

An early American LaFrance tractor-drawn aerial ladder out on the street in downtown Tucson, Arizona, for Dillinger Days in January 2020. The yearly event remembers the 1934 Hotel Congress fire, after which firefighters recognized members of John Dillinger's gang and tipped off police. A short motor tractor up front pulls a long ladder trailer, which is how ladder companies traded their horses for engines. The same tractor-drawn layout, steered at the back by a tillerman, still runs in big-city ladder companies today.