Engine 382 was nicknamed “Queen of the Fleet” by one of the men who drove her, and the label stuck. She was manned only by a Firefighter Specialist (Fire Apparatus Engineer) on a year-round basis. However, if dispatched to a brush fire, the Captain and firefighters from Engine 282 would switch rigs and become 382’s crew. Many of those brush fire responses were long - fifty miles or more to Malibu, Gorman, or the upper branches of San Gabriel Canyon. In 1968, while working a fire in the Quail Lake area, Engine 382 was caught in a firestorm. Phil Goodell, the residential Fire Captain at Quail Lake was with 382’s in his patrol truck (Patrol 77). Captain Goodell suffered fatal burns and Captain Al Moore, in command of Engine 382, spent many months recuperating from burn injuries.

Engine 382 was badly burned also, but the County decided to repair her. In fact, she was later featured in the World Premiere of the “Emergency!” television series, parked in front of the tunnel opening in the cave-in scene. Later, Engine 382 was seen parked in fire camp in the one-hour episode of “Emergency!” named “Brushfire.” Despite her success as a film star, the County retired Engine 382 and sold her to the Big Bear City Fire Department in the San Bernardino Mountains. There, she was repowered with a Detroit diesel and given a lime yellow paint job, and served for another 27 years (in spite of being painted the wrong color).

Early in 2000, Engine 382 came home. The Big Bear City Fire Department sold her to our museum for the princely sum of one dollar. She was driven off the mountain to our South Gate warehouse by Captain Paul Oyler (Secretary of CLAFMA). Sometime in the next year or two, the “Queen of the Fleet” will be repainted red and she will remain an important part of the heritage of the County of Los Angeles Fire Department. An early photo of Engine 382 can be found at page 70 of “Devil Wind Fire Wagons.”