Dozens of people gathered in the E-ONE Delivery Center on March 6, 2024, to kick off the company’s 50th anniversary celebration. Employees, dealers, customers, and local dignitaries all gathered on a day that Marion County Commissioner Michelle Stone and City of Ocala Mayor Ben Marciano both proclaimed as E-ONE Fire Truck Day.

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Vice President of Sales for REV Fire Group Chris McClung welcomed guests to the event and recounted the company’s origins. Originally known as Emergency One, E-ONE was founded by Bob Wormser in 1974. He designed and manufactured the first modular extruded aluminum fire truck body—in, of all places according to McClung, his garage. “It was a gamechanger for the fire industry at that time,” he says. “It’s continued to be so for the last 50 years. This launched the company’s reputation for pioneering innovation and is still evidenced 50 years later in the fire apparatus we produce for fire departments around the world.”

Early on, Wormser moved the company’s operations to a small facility in downtown Ocala. It wasn’t long before he moved the company to an 82,000-square-foot production facility in 1978. In 1990, the company added an additional 65,000 square feet, the Welcome Center and Delivery Center. And, the company added a facility in Hamburg, New York, in 2010 to serve its Northeast United States dealers and customers. What began as a 25-employee company has evolved into a company with more than 1,000 employees in two facilities.

McClung later introduced Larry Daniels, senior director of sales for REV Fire Group. Daniels is a 32-year veteran of the company, beginning his career at E-ONE sanding bodies on the second shift. Daniels recognized dealer partners that were at the event. “There are 35 dealers in North America. It’s those dealers who are the face of the E-ONE brand and E-ONE products every today to our joint customers throughout the world,” he says.

One dealer recognized was Thomas McLendon, III, chairman of Sunbelt Fire. Not only was he recognized for Sunbelt Fire’s tenure as an E-ONE dealer, Daniels also recognized him for bringing a 1984 E-ONE pumper with him.

The 1984 rig features a Hurricane cab, one of the first 100 Hurricane cabs to ever be produced. It served longer than 25 years with the Petal (MS) Fire Department and, as legend has it, is the first fire truck McLendon ever drove.

When McClung introduced Daniels, he remarked, “Today is a lot about the history and the story of the employees that make E-ONE great.” He continued, “It’s imperative to talk about the heart and soul of our business—the dedicated men and women who work here.” McClung recounted that as organizers of the March 6 event drilled down, they realized how many employees have been with the company for 35 years or longer. “I was shocked when we looked at it and did the numbers and realized we have nearly 60 employees who have 35 years with E-ONE. To me, that’s staggering. It’s the better part of their professional lives that have been dedicated to fire trucks.” And although McClung said there are no employees who have been there all 50 years, there is one employee who has been there for 49 years—Jimmy Skinner. He is a mechanic who joined the company in December 1975. “The interesting thing about Jimmy is there are no days off for him. It blows my mind. i was two when he started. It’s incredible that he had the “sticktoitiveness.” We look at it as passion. He loves what he does, and that’s why he’s still doing it.”

Another important part of the program was the unveiling of the 50th Anniversary badge that will be affixed to every fire apparatus delivered in 2024.

As McClung looks to the future—the next 50 years—he says E-ONE is committed to providing the best fire apparatus in the industry. “Our tagline is ‘Delivering Strength through Excellence.’ We use this every day,” he says. “Because we see it is imperative to what we do. It’s what we’re renowned for. It’s our innovation. It’s our advanced engineering. It’s our highly skilled team all to build world class, heavy duty fire trucks for our end users and our departments out there.”