Antique emergency vehicles coming to Naperville
The Chicagoland Emergency Vehicle Show is on the move, and parts of it will land this weekend in Aurora and Naperville.
Festivities start with a parade of 75 police and fire vehicles through North Aurora, Montgomery and Aurora from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Friday, ending at the Aurora Regional Fire Museum, 53 N. Broadway Ave., where the vehicles will be shown until 9 p.m.
The main show takes place Saturday at the fire museum, a new location for the 18th annual event from its previous spot in North Aurora. Visitors to the free event from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday will be able to see between roughly 100 historic and modern fire engines, police cars and ambulances, as well as SWAT team demonstrations, safety presentations and vehicles that have been used in movies such as "Backdraft" and "The Blues Brothers."
But one new element of this year's show comes Sunday, when roughly 50 of the vehicles displayed during the main event will head east for the first Downtown Naperville Vintage Emergency Vehicle Show from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The city and the Downtown Naperville Alliance created the new event as a finale to the city's National Night Out celebration, which took place Tuesday.
"It's a great opportunity for all ages to come and see the vehicles that have served us," said Katie Wood, executive director of Downtown Naperville Alliance.
The vintage vehicles will line up on Jackson Avenue between Eagle and Webster streets. A stretch of Webster north of Jackson also will be closed to accommodate the display.
One highlight of the Saturday show that's also scheduled to make an appearance in Naperville is a 1924 Ahrens-Fox fire truck, said David Lewis, curator of the Aurora Regional Fire Museum.
"It's a very distinctive type of vintage engine," Lewis said about the Ahrens-Fox. "It's sort of the Rolls-Royce of fire apparatus back in the era, and it looks like a Rolls-Royce with a long nose and 1920s vintage lines."
With gems like that, the free event almost will take on the air of an antique show for emergency vehicles instead of household trinkets. Many of the vehicles appearing in Naperville and Aurora are privately owned or shown by their manufacturers.
But the new Naperville event also will include modern equipment and technology used by police and firefighters.
"I always think it's fun for people to see the evolution and how these things have progressed and how technology has come a long way," Wood said.
The show follows another vintage car event hosted in downtown Naperville in June. A classic car show over Father's Day weekend kicked off the summer and the display of 15 decorated sculptures shaped like vintage coupes or convertibles.
The car sculptures will remain outside until after Labor Day along Main, Washington and Water streets, as well as Chicago, Jackson, Jefferson and Van Buren avenues.
If you go
What: Chicagoland Emergency Vehicle Show
When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 8
Where: Aurora Regional Fire Museum, 53 N. Broadway Ave.
Who: Owners, manufacturers and operators of emergency vehicles
Cost: Free
Info: <a href="http://www.emergencyvehicleshow.com/">emergencyvehicleshow.com</a>
What: Downtown Naperville Vintage Emergency Vehicle Show
When: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Where: Jackson Avenue, between Eagle and Webster streets
Who: Sponsored by the city of Naperville and Downtown Naperville Alliance
Cost: Free
Info: <a href="http://downtownnaperville.com/events/4117/naperville-emergency-vehicle-show">downtownnaperville.com</a>