Orono Firefighter Keeps Tradition Alive By Hand-Painting New Fire Fire Truck

I am betting there are many out there that would agree that there's something kinda cool about a shiny new fire engine. After all, isn't that why toy companies have been marketing toy versions of them to kids for the better part of the last hundred years?!

As cool as a shiny new fire engine might be, it's even cooler when it's customized for the town it's going to serve, and even cooler still, when that customization comes at the hands of one of the fire department's very own!

Meet Orono Firefighter, Dennis Bean. Having served as a full-time firefighter with the town since 1996, Bean's also been dabbling in a bit of a side hustle for the department, since then, too.

While fighting fires is his main job for the town, according to the Orono Fire Department Facebook Pag Bean also has another skill set that he lends to the community: Bean's a pretty amazing artist.

Naturally, when the department purchased the truck back in December of 2022, Bean jumped at the chance to personalize it for Orono.

He started with hand-painting the lettering, to tie it in with Orono's University of Maine Black Bears.

But then between some training exercises, weather and the truck having to go back to the factory, to be customized with gear for the firefighters, the process to paint the rest of the truck was a bit delayed.

"The drawings done on engine...now to paint!!!"

"It's a pride thing. Firetrucks, back from day 1, were hand-lettered and hand-painted. And usually, the way they were painted signified what firehouse they were from."

"It's really steeped in tradition, which is what I like about it. "

"I drew it on after we cleaned up from the fire."

It's a bit of a tedious process. What Bean does to one side of the engine, he has to duplicate, by hand, on the other side. So he will paint one area of the truck, and then while that area dries, he'll haul around to the other side and paint it all over again.

"So it will look like the bear ripped the metal away when I'm done. Both sides."

The town of Orono allowed Bean to work on the project during his shift at the firehouse. So he'd set up, paint until they got a call, and then they'd simply move the brushes aside and head out.

"Came in this morning at 5:00 to sling some paint!!"

"We did go on a call, and luckily I could stop and pull everything away. We drove off and it was good for drying!"

Using a combination of hand-painting and airbrushing, Bean makes the bears come alive!

As far as the finished product goes...

As the kids say these days....it's fire! (Pun totally intended!)

Thank you, Dennis Bean, for all that you do as a firefighter and for creating and sharing such beautiful work!