'STILL CHANGING LIVES': Tulsa Tech students restoring New York fire truck

BROKEN ARROW, Okla. — Students at Tulsa Tech's Broken Arrow campus have a unique opportunity, especially with the 25th anniversary of 9/11 this year.

Back in 2001, students from across Oklahoma raised around $400,000 to buy a fire truck for N.Y.F.D. calling it the
"Spirit of Oklahoma." After nearly two decades as a rescue truck, it's now here in Green Country, but isn't running.

That's where the Tulsa Tech students come in, led by diesel instructor Shannon Fargo.

"I've never had a vehicle intimidate me the way this one has," Fargo said. "Of all my years in the field and of everything I've ever worked on, this has been the most nervous I've ever been just because of the history."

There are 10 names on the side of the Spirit, representing 10 New York first responders who came to Oklahoma to help after the 1995 OKC bombing. They later died on 9/11.

"Those are honorary Oklahomans right there," Fargo said. "They came here, did heroic work, did more heroic work, and lost their lives in that process."

It's now in the hands of students like Jose Saldivar, who wasn't alive in 2001 but knows the significance of the day, and the truck.

"I think it's amazing getting to work on a piece of history," Saldivar said. "You know, it saved a lot of lives, and I mean even still, it's still changing lives by helping all of us learn about diesel trucks and giving us a career."

Fargo says the goal is to have the truck running by the end of the semester. And when they do?

"I'd love to say that it's going to be no big deal. It's just like any other vehicle," Fargo said. "But I don't think that's going to be the case.

"It would be amazing really," Saldivar added. "It would be like a piece of history brought back to life. When they say living fossils, I mean it's not that old, but that's what it would be like."