Pirsch Pumper, West Allis Fire Department, 1930

The West Allis Fire Department's 1930 Pirsch, shown at the city's classic car show in 2022. Peter Pirsch and Sons was based in Kenosha, Wisconsin, so this suburban Milwaukee engine was a local product. Pirsch made its biggest mark with ladders: in the mid-1930s it delivered the first fully powered 100-foot all-metal aerial ladder, to Melrose, Massachusetts, and Pirsch aerials became a fixture in cities for decades.