Page 7 - August 2023

How it started
Kirvida purchased N911CF in April 1998. It wasn’t his first airplane, or even his first King Air; we’ll have to go back further to get the full story.
Kirvida’s grandfather Elmer Abrahamson was a small town blacksmith in Minnesota who in 1931 transitioned from smithing to building fire trucks. Kirvida’s father Mitchell was Elmer’s son in law, and he joined the business when he was discharged from the Navy after World War II. Eventually Mitchell ran the day-to-day operations, and Kirvida joined him after active duty training to maintain the Navy’s aircraft followed by college.
In October 1982, Kirvida left the family business to grow Custom Fire Apparatus, Inc., a side business he had established four years earlier in Osceola, less than 50 miles from the Twin Cities and near the Minnesota/ Wisconsin border.
The business began as a manu- facturer of grass fire-fighting equip- ment and mobile water tankers, then moved into building high quality and creative brush trucks (designed to assist in fighting wild- fires), tankers and light rescue ap- paratus. They also became known as a refurbishment destination of other makes of fire apparatus, which gave them insight into how apparatus should be built to resist the effects of time, action and the elements.
Today, CustomFIRE has nearly 40 employees and custom builds several trucks every month, from light rescue squads and brush trucks to the most elaborate heavy rescues and pumpers. The company designs each apparatus with Pro-E engineering software and laser cuts each part to ensure a technologically advanced precision fit and quality. Their custom designs combine the best of modern technology and the personalized traditions of the historical fire apparatus industry, Kirvida said. In recent years, they’ve used their engineering and manufacturing capabilities
AUGUST 2023
KING AIR MAGAZINE • 5
“Their custom designs combine the best of modern technology and the personalized traditions of the historical fire apparatus industry ... ”
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