POULSBO — After five months of tinkering, adjusting and tweaking, the 1918 LaFrance fire truck the Poulsbo Fire Department purchased is finally up and running.

And while the historic vehicle’s heyday of racing to area fires has come and gone, it can travel short distances at slow speeds — making it perfect for parades.

The LaFrance, a $13,000 purchase, is identical to the city’s first fire engine, which arrived on the scene in 1936, Poulsbo Fire Department Chief Jim Shields said.

“They paid $836 for the truck,” he said. “And they had to make two payments.”

The antique engine on the LaFrance is now running, but the rest of the truck needs some TLC, including body work and a new paint job complete with gold leaf finishing.

“The original pinstriping was in 23 carat gold,” said Bill Austin, who has volunteered to lay the golf leaf after the fire truck has been painted. “That’s how it was then, and that’s how we’ll do it now.”

“We’d like to restore it to the point were it looks presentable,” said Kitsap County Fire District No. 18 Commissioner Jim Ingalls. “The only thing we were able to do was get it running, changing the fluids to get it driving around the block.”

As for the remainder of the work, Shields said there isn’t a plan in place yet concerning future costs although options are being explored. The fact that the LaFrance is running is fantastic in itself, Shields said.

“We’re going to show it as much as we can,” he said, adding that the truck will be used for promotion and education. “We’re hoping to share it with the outside communities as much as possible.”

“It’s kind of fun,” Austin said. “It makes a connection with the community, it gets to be in the community. A lot of community members are volunteering to help refurbish it, restore it.”

With the LaFrance up and running, the Poulsbo Fire Department is now focusing its efforts on making it more presentable. Shields and Ingalls have been talking with Tom Hall of Central Market to try and get a fund raiser off the backburner.

“Originally, we raised $20,000, and the truck cost $13,000,” Ingalls said. “We’re not sure how much more than that we’re going to need.”

“We want to do a lot of things with this truck,” Shields said. “Every one of these things takes money to do it.”

In the meantime, Shields said the department is getting the truck out as much as possible, depending on the newly fixed engine and the current paint job. The little engine is making the rounds, and will be at Blackberry Festival in Bremerton.