This article refers to the Québec fire apparatus manufacturer. For the city of Phoenix, Arizona, see Phoenix Fire Department.
Phoenix Fire Apparatus was a Canadian fire apparatus manufacturer located in Saint-Cyrille-de-Wendover, Québec near Drummondville.
History[]
After Pierreville Fire Trucks ceased operations in 1985, owners Marion, Yvon and Jean Thibault set up a new operation in Saint-Cyrille-de-Wendover. Camions à Incendie Phoenix Inc., also known as Phoenix Fire Apparatus Inc., was officially constituted on June 27, 1985[1]. The plant was located at 2645, Boulevard Terra-Jet in Saint-Cyrille-de-Wendover, a small neighboring town of Drummondville. The postal address was a post office box in Drummondville. This situation created some confusion and several websites and sources located the company in Drummondville.
The first trucks finished by Phoenix were incomplete Pierreville orders. As the three owners already were the Canadian supplier of Simon-LTI products with Pierreville, Phoenix took over the Canadian distributorship for Simon-LTI products. Phoenix also became an official distributor for Waterous pumps.
After only six months of operation, several orders were signed for American and Canadian fire departments, the company had 14 employees and had already exceeded one million dollars in sales[2]. In June 1988, four pumpers were sold to SCECO, the Saudi Consolidated Electric Company, the $400 000 contract was the first attempt to export fire trucks outside North America for Phoenix. About 50 trucks a year were built or refurbished at the Saint-Cyrille-de-Wendover plant in the late 1980s[3].
In the late 1980s, Jean Navert become the company's director.
In 1989, the 22 employee company was planning a $700,000 expansion project to double the capacity of the plant and the number of employees[4].
On December 17, 1992, the company officially declared bankruptcy[5]. In early 1993, NovaQuintech purchased the assets of Phoenix Fire Apparatus[6].
Production[]
Phoenix built approximately 100 trucks, most of which were delivered in Québec, Ontario and the Maritime provinces. Phoenix offered steel, stainless and aluminium body construction. The company also built water tanks of polypropylene, fiberglass, stainless steel and steel.
Serial numbers[]
Phoenix serial numbers are in a YY-MM-AAAA-BBB format. The YY and MM are respectively the year and the month during the bid. The AAAA, which can either be 3 or 4 digits, is a sequencial number for the bids, it starts at 001 and possibly finishes at 1565. The BBB is another sequencial number which is possibly for the actual projects done by Phoenix.
Factories[]
| City | Address | In Service | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saint-Cyrille-de-Wendover | 2645, Boulevard Terra-Jet | 1985-1992 |
Sources[]
- Dubbert, Bob, Shane MacKichan and Joel L. Gebet. Encyclopedia of Canadian Fire Apparatus. Hudson, WI: Iconografix, 2004.
- ↑ http://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/2361656?docsearchtext=camion%20incendie%20phoenix
- ↑ http://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/3706657?docsearchtext=camion%20incendie%20phoenix
- ↑ http://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/3713676?docsearchtext=camion%20incendie%20phoenix
- ↑ http://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/3722718?docsearchtext=camion%20incendie%20phoenix
- ↑ http://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/3262179?docsearchtext=camion%20incendie%20phoenix
- ↑ http://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/2547010?docsearchtext=camion%20incendie%20phoenix