Contact Mark Kennedy at or 42.Japanese fire truck manufacturer Morita Group has deployed a Bluetooth-based IoT solution at a 57,000-square metre factory in Osaka, in Japan, to track the location and status of trucks as they are being built. She imagines an announcer saying, "And (playing the) fire truck. Any of the "Band Wagon's" sound effects could technically become part of the music, she said. Sydney, who is a percussionist in the band, said she might pitch the firetruck to be part of the band's half-time show next year. They've even created a sign on the side that says "Band Wagon." They named the truck Maestro, to complete the musical motif. The Twitchells have offered the truck as a mascot for the Boyd Buchanan band. A minister asked them to park it in front of his church when his sermon was titled, "God's First Responders." Shannon and Sydney made Christmas snacks for all the people in their neighborhoods and delivered them in the truck. It's been in the East Ridge and Red Bank Christmas parades. When it comes to creating fun, the fire truck is a gift that keeps on giving. As he was leaving, he hit the siren and all the employees came running out to wave goodbye. Somewhere in Idaho, he pulled over for a coffee at Starbucks. "They all looked up, their ears went up and they (turned their heads to watch) me go by," he said. He tested the air siren on a herd of "at least 500" cows beside an interstate highway in Wyoming. Of course, Twitchell had to try out all these features on his 2,500-mile trip from Seattle back to Tennessee. There's no owners manual to describe what the woman is saying, but her shrill urgency is hilarious. Its oddest feature might be a pre-recorded female voice that admonishes pedestrians when the left turn signal is activated in the right-hand drive vehicle. "It's also got a PA with a microphone so you can tell people to get out of the way." "It has a jump seat, an air siren, an electronic siren, bells and flashing lights," Twitchell said. To say the fire truck has all the bells and whistles is true. Barry said he developed an interest in fire equipment as a volunteer fire fighter when he was in high school in St. When his friend - who was actually standing beside the fire truck in Seattle - measured it at 97 inches, Barry trusted his own estimate instead.īarry said he paid about $30,000 for the 1996 model fire vehicle, which began life in Kyoto, Japan, as a heavy-duty Mitsubishi work truck and was transformed into an eight-passenger, fully operational fire truck, which is about as cute as an English bulldog. Through some magic known only to structural engineers such as Barry, he had estimated the truck's height at 95 inches based on calculations he did using an online photograph. The truck only had 2,400 miles on the odometer and was in pristine condition. He had a friend in Seattle go test drive the vehicle and measure its height to see if it would fit in his hilltop garage, which houses his Porsche sports car collection (among other things). Most people would have stopped right there, but not Barry. Yes, Barry had seen the imported Japanese fire truck in an online auction and thought to himself, "That's a cool little fire truck." "The garage door opens and there sits a fire truck," remembered Sydney, a ninth grader at Boyd Buchanan School. When he arrived back in Chattanooga after driving the vehicle cross-country in October, he dragged Shannon and Sydney - who were packing for a trip - down to the basement garage. Yes, when he is not leaving jet trails in the sky, Barry Twitchell can be a tad adventurous.Īnd this most recent adventure was a doozy. Or when he turned part of the house itself into a pinball arcade. Or the time Barry decided to turn a multicar, free-standing garage near their house into a neon-sign making operation. Like the time Barry secretly bought Shannon a muscle car for her birthday and hid it for months in a neighbor's garage. "It's a very Barry thing to do," explained Shannon, during an interview at the family's house in East Brainerd last week. Twitchell's wife Shannon and 14-year-old daughter Sydney are used to such head-fakes. Commercial airline pilot Barry Twitchell told his wife and daughter in October he was going to Seattle to retrieve a vehicle he purchased online.
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