Neo Fire Trucks

Purple Engine

Parked on a street at one side of the Binondo Church was this purple fire truck of the Fil-Chinese Paco Volunteer Search & Rescue Brigade which serves the Paco and Binondo areas of the City of Manila. It is a member of the Association of Philippine Volunteer Fire Brigades, Inc., which has twenty members from Metro Manila and another seventeen from the rest of the Philippines. The Purple Engine is a gift of the owner of Eng Bee Tin, which has been producing traditional Chinese delicacies like hopia and tikoy since Mr. Chua Chiu Hong (b. 1912) set up his first stall in Binondo. To survive stiff competition in the 1980s, the company had to learn how to innovate its products. The first, and still the most popular, of its new products was the ube (purple yam) hopia, hence the color of its donated fire trucks.