What’s your best auction win?
Anyone passing through Lennoxville around 7pm on Wednesday evening might have noticed an unusual vehicle parked between the fire hall and the railroad tracks. The vehicle, a 1985 Walter CP-4500 crash tender, is designed for fire fighting at airports and recently became the property of Claude Beaudoin, a resident of Cookshire-eaton.
“It was just a fluke. I was in the right place at the right time,” Beaudoin said, explaining that in this case the right place was a Ritchie Bros. Auction in Montreal, where he had gone with a friend to look at trucks. “When we saw it, right away we said wow, that’s one of a kind.”
The truck is, according to Beaudoin, the same vehicle acquired by the municipalities of Bromont, Brigham, and Saint-alphonse de Granby in 2013 to help serve the airport in Bromont. In the end, the Johnville resident said that he was able to buy it, uncontested, for the price of the tires.
“I’m sure some people really regret the sale,” The truck’s new owner reflected. “The auction lasted maybe 25 seconds. No one was bidding on it. For sure there was no firefighter there or someone would have seen the value.”
Beaudoin said that he is now in talks with the director of the Cookshire-eaton fire department to be trained in the use of the truck’s equipment so that he can use it to help support firefighting services in the area.
“You cannot believe how many things there are on this,” The man said, explaining that the vehicle is designed to be operated by a single person from inside the cabin.
Whether or not the conversation with fire departments goes well, though, Beaudoin said that he would like to bring his truck to more public events like Friendship Day.
“I would love to be there in the parade,” he said.