Tuesday, March 3, 2026
He's baaaaack: CVTC instructor, students bring Freddie back to life for ECFD
Richard Jones, instructional assistant in Mechatronics at CVTC, presented Freddie, a 12-volt, radio-controlled fire engine back to members of the Eau Claire Fire Department after Jones and students fixed the fire truck. The fire truck is used to teach first graders about fire safety.
Typically, firefighter-paramedics from the Eau Claire Fire Department are called to assist residents when they’re in peril. This time around, it was firefighter-paramedics who had to make a call to help one of their own.
Freddie was on life support. Barely hanging on.
"I thought he was a goner for sure," said Shoua Bauer. "He wasn't running. His eye was all messed up."
Freddie, a red radio-controlled, 12-volt battery-run plastic fire engine, has been a familiar face to first graders throughout the Eau Claire Area School District for more than 20 years. Fire crews use him to teach fire prevention from escape plans and safe meeting spots to what to do in an emergency. Instead of standing in front of students and talking, firefighters speak through Freddie, instantly capturing attention.
“Every kid in Eau Claire knows who Freddie is,” Bauer said. “This past year, it was a big loss to the school district to not have him do the presentations.”
When Freddie broke down, Bauer started searching for help. His lights were out, the wheels weren’t turning, the squirt gun fire hose was inoperable, and the headset firefighters use to speak through Freddie wasn’t transmitting.
“At first I was trying to figure out who would be good with robots,” Bauer said. “Then I found CVTC. I thought I would call you guys to see if you were able to help us out,” Bauer said, gesturing towards Richard Jones, instructional assistant in Mechatronics at CVTC and the Mechatronics Club.
Jones was more than willing to give it a try with students from the Club.
“What I thought at first is like, ‘Oh yeah, they're just gonna bring it and drop it off here. And, you know, it's just going to be a demo piece,’ ” Jones said. “Well, once we were able to get in and start looking at it and seeing what the actual problems were. It was fairly simple stuff.”
Freddie arrived in October, but with busy schedules and a break between semesters, progress came in stages.
“We did dig into him a little bit, and we did have him driving before Christmas break,” Jones said.
Underneath Freddie’s hood, students discovered three or four bad fuses. Replacing them restored drivability. Next came the water pump for Freddie’s squirt gun. Using a multimeter, they confirmed power was reaching the motor. After disassembling the pump, they found it had been reassembled incorrectly during a previous repair. A little lubrication and reassembly later, it worked again. They also repaired the remote control, finding a switch pushed back inside and securing it with a new nut.
Then there was the “lazy eye.” A broken plastic coupling inside the mechanism that actuates Freddie’s eyelids had snapped. Jones ordered a replacement part from Robotronics, based in Utah.
Students even ventured into unfamiliar territory, taking apart Freddie’s amplifier, similar to a car amplifier in a 12-volt system, and repairing the circuit board inside.
“That's not something we typically do in this program,” Jones said. “But I have enough experience with it. I was able to advise and get it taken care of.”
In industry, he noted, circuit boards are often replaced or sent out, but the CVTC students working on the project got some additional education.
For Bauer, the collaboration meant everything.
“We were about ready to, you know, be like, ‘Goodbye, Freddie,’ ” she said. “I was very lucky to find people who could fix Freddie at CVTC.”
Now operational again — eye blinking, wheels turning, water spraying — Freddie is ready to return to the classroom, to help students learn how to stay safe.
