SHENANDOAH, Pa. — If you came across this vehicle, you might have trouble deciphering exactly what it is. It's towering, it has wheels, but also, a propeller.
"We pride ourselves in preserving the history of the firefighter," Joe Kufrovich of the Schuylkill Historical Fire Society said. "That would belong to the Reading Scuba Team in the city of Reading. Up until a few years ago, they used it for water recovery."
The vehicle, built in the 1960s, is what you call a LARC, which stands for lighter, amphibious resupply, cargo.
Over the weekend, it was given to the Schuylkill Historical Fire Society by the Reading Fire Scuba Team so that its history and the tradition of firefighting can be celebrated and preserved.
"In 1976, we had 300,000 firefighters," Joe Kufrovich said. "In 2015, we were down to 7,000. When they teach the classes, the first thing is the history of firefighting, and the history of firefighting is what we do."
What's unique about the vehicle is that it was driven on land or used as a boat for water rescues. The tires only weigh about 12 pounds each, which helped with buoyancy.
"It's actually an amphibious vehicle," Ned Beck of the Schuylkill Historical Fire Society said. "That's what they were built for to carry troops into the water and beach them, too. That's what they were originally designed for."
The LARC will get fixed up by the society, then you might see it at an upcoming parade.