The first apparatus used as Engine 51 for Emergency! was this 1965 Crown Firecoach Triple. It has a pump producing 1,250 gallons per minute, a 935 cubic inch Hall-Scott gasoline engine producing 195 or 215 horsepower.

The first “Engine 51” was an actual Los Angeles County Fire Department (LACoFD) engine assigned to Fire Station 60 on the lot of Universal Studios. LA County Engine 60 was the Los Angeles County Fire Department’s last open cab fire engine. It was in service at Universal Studios from 1965 to about 1987 when it was placed in the care of the Los Angeles County Fire Museum where it resides today. Showing only 20,000 miles on the odometer it is the lowest mileage fire apparatus on the LACoFD. The Museum plans to keep this rig as is, in its original condition, only touching up the paint where needed and maintaining the equipment to keep it running.

For the first two seasons, when filming on the Universal Studio lot, this is the engine that was used, as it was readily available. Engine 60 became Engine 51 by putting magnets or stickers over the numbers 60 on the doors and the front. A sister, Engine 127, at the Station 127 in Carson, was used when they filmed off the lot, at the refinery, or at the old fire station. Engine 127 was involved in a traffic accident and destroyed leaving engine 60 as the only original E51.