If there’s one thing Marty Matthews loved to do, it was taking care of the fire apparatus operated by The Villages Public Safety Department.
With more than 60 years dedicated to the fire service, there wasn’t much Matthews didn’t know about a piece of firefighting equipment. And when it came time to restore an antique fire engine that so proudly takes part in parades in the community today, Matthews knew he was the right person for the job.
Matthews died in March and has been sorely missed around the fire department. But on Saturday, Fire Chief Edmund Cain and his staff made sure the former mechanic who did whatever was asked of him was properly memorialized with his name adorned to the E-One Typhoon engine at Station 47 on S Morse Boulevard.
The new piece of equipment was unveiled during a ceremony that not only marked the department’s 20th anniversary but also included the age-old tradition of pushing an apparatus into the station, which harkens back to the days of horse-drawn steam engines.
Cain said having Matthews’ name on the new engine is a memorial that honors his hard work and dedication to the public.
“Marty was a good friend of the department,” he said. “I could go to an emergency at 3 in the morning and there’s Marty out there running around taking care of the trucks. So, it’s really missing a good friend, a family member of the department.
As Cain shared some statistics about The Villages Public Safety Department with the crowd on Saturday morning – it started in 1999 with nine firefighters, one engine, one station, one fire chief and handled just under 1,000 calls that first year – members of Matthews’ family were sitting in the audience smiling, no doubt recalling his many dedicated years of service.
Shortly after Cain highlighted the department’s current stats – 118 firefighters, more than 30 apparatus, nine stations, 15 administrative personnel, 70 square miles to cover and 29,219 calls last year alone – the crowd moved to the parking lot for the pushing-in ceremony. A short time later, Matthews’ family members were all smiles as they talked about seeing his name on the new engine and what it meant to them.
“It shows the respect that he had with his fellow firefighters and co-workers,” said Matthews’ wife, Marjorie, who lives in Water Oak. “He had a passion for the fire service. And this is about the biggest honor he could get.”
“My dad got up every morning and this was what he did,” added Matthews’ daughter, Yvonne Levandowski, of Weeki Wachee. “He was there to serve people, and this is a great honor for him.”
Matthews’ son, Mark, of Lake Panasoffkee, said he isn’t surprised that his father was so highly thought of throughout the fire department.
“He took a lot of pride in his work,” he said. “He always went far and beyond to get the job done.”
Without a doubt, one of the biggest things Matthews is known for in The Villages is leading the successful restoration of “The Old Girl,” a bright red 1950s-era American LaFrance fire engine that is loved throughout the community. It cost the department $1 to purchase the engine after it was found in a barn in Alabama surrounded by hay bales. Two years after Matthews got his hands on the apparatus, it was the talk of the town.
“He was so dedicated,” Marjorie said. “When they first started, they were in a parking lot. That’s where they worked, in the hot sun.”
Marjorie said it was important to her husband to see “The Old Girl” restored to her glory days.
“He knew he could do it,” she said. “He had so many contacts in the fire service. He called in a lot of favors. Fire service people are like that – they’re like a big family.”
Matthews’ son Dean, who has been in the fire service since 1976, said it was important to his father to breathe life back into the dilapidated engine.
“He always took a challenge to say that he could do it and then it was done, going down the road,” said Dean, who once served alongside his father in the fire department and now works at REV Technical Center in Ocala, a company that worked on the engine that carries his father’s name.
Yvonne smiled as she recalled a special moment involving “The Old Girl” and her father’s perseverance regarding a piece of equipment that was needed to complete the restoration.
“The bell on ‘The Old Girl’ was the last thing they needed, and Dad couldn’t find an original,” she said. “There were many bells that came across, but he never took any of them because they weren’t original to the truck.”
Yvonne said her father stuck to his guns and continued the search until he found out through a friend of a friend that an original bell was sitting in an old bar in New York, not far from Elma, where the Matthews family used to live.
“It ended up this bell was the exact bell he needed,” she said. “And not only the exact bell, but it was off a fire truck that my dad sold to the fire company 40-something years prior. That’s the bell that sits on ‘The Old Girl’ today.”
Like the new Engine 47, “The Old Girl” also pays tribute to Matthews. And when area residents hear that bell ringing loudly during parades and other events, you can bet the members of Matthews family will be smiling and thinking about everything he’s meant to the fire department he so dearly loved.
