D.E. McCann & Sons (or just McCann) was an American fire apparatus manufacturer located in Portland, Maine.
History[]
Daniel E. McCann opened a blacksmithing and carriage-making shop on Preble Street in Portland in 1872, and soon after, started building horse & hand-drawn fire apparatus. When Daniel died in 1907, his sons Carl and Dennis took over the business, and sold their first fire apparatus in 1909. In 1912, the company built their first piece of motorized fire apparatus. A fire destroyed the factory in 1919, but the company soon rebuilt; and later built a second building further down on Preble in 1929. During this time (the early 1910s), McCann was one of only seven companies in the entire United States building motorized fire apparatus.
Initially, McCann used a variety of commercial truck chassis for their trucks (such as Ford and REO), and later purchased some chassis from the Stutz Fire Engine Company and Diamond T. In 1927, they introduced their first fully custom chassis; a significant feat for a small regional builder. Production continued, and 1931; they built a new manufacturing facility on Route 1 in neighboring Scarborough. Up to this point, all of McCann's sales had been localized to New England, particularly the northern portion, but in the mid 1930s; they sold trucks to Laytonsville, Maryland, and Ridgefield Park, New Jersey. In 1935, they landed their biggest contract yet, a trio of pumpers for the nation's capital: Washington, DC. But, this soon proved to be a nightmare.
From the start, the District's fire chief was unhappy that McCann got the contract, preferring American LaFrance instead, and telling Carl McCann "you'll wish you never got that contract". To make matter worse, problems with the pump on one of the engines caused a delay in accepting it for delivery, and costing McCann $12,000 on a $40,000 contract. After this incident, it seems that production never fully recovered, and McCann eventually went out of business by 1957.
Their factories on Preble Street are now offices, and the site of their facility in Scarborough is now a Mercedes-Benz dealership.