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This article is about a specific type of firefighting apparatus.
For Firefighting apparatus in general, see .
"Fire truck" redirects here. For the 1978 arcade game, see .
"Fire engines" redirects here. For the Scottish post-punk band, see .
Fire engine operated by the
in the United Kingdom
An example of a tower from the
A fire engine (also known in some territories as a fire apparatus, fire truck, or fire appliance) is a vehicle designed primarily for
operations. In addition, many fire departments often employ their vehicles for various other uses including
and rescue purposes. The terms "fire engine" and "fire truck" are often used interchangeably but in North America represent different types of vehicles.
The primary purposes of a fire engine include transporting
to an incident scene, providing water with which to fight a fire, and carrying other equipment needed by the firefighters. A typical modern vehicle will carry tools for a wide range of firefighting and rescue tasks, with common equipment including , a , ventilating equipment,
kits, and .
Many fire vehicles are based on standard vehicle models (although some parts may be upgraded to cope with the demands of the vehicle's usage). They are normally fitted with
and , as well as communication equipment such as a two-way radios and mobile computer technology.
An example of an engine, which can be identified in part by the pump panel on the side. Compartments in the rear hold essential tools for different types of emergency calls, and the apparatus often holds a reserve of water as well. This truck contains about 1,000 gallons of water.
The standard fire engine is an
designed primarily for
operations. The primary purpose of the engine is transporting
to the scene, providing a limited supply of water with which to fight the fire, and carrying tools, equipment, and hoses needed by the firefighters. The tools carried on the fire engine will vary greatly based on many factors including the size of the department and what sort of terrain the department must handle. For example, departments located near large bodies of water or rivers are likely to have some sort of
equipment. Standard tools found on nearly all fire engines include ,
(often referred to as the ), , , , , and .
The exact layout of what is carried on an engine is decided by the needs of the department. For example,
which cover metropolitan areas more likely to assist with non-fire-related cases such as
removal/cleanup and
of people from
or , while rural departments may need to do things like access remote areas or extinguish forest fires.
Conventional pumper of
Some fire engines have a fixed , also known as a master stream, which directs a heavy stream of water to wherever the operator points it. An additional feature of engines are their preconnected , commonly referred to as preconnects. The preconnects are attached to the engine's onboard water supply and allow firefighters to quickly mount an aggressive attack on the fire as soon as they arrive on scene. When the onboard water supply runs out, the engine is connected to more permanent sources such as
and can also use natural sources such as rivers or reservoirs by .
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Quint 13 belonging to .
A turntable ladder (TL) is perhaps the best-known form of special purpose aerial apparatus, and is used to gain access to fires occurring at height using a large telescopic ladder, where conventional ladders carried on conventional appliances might not reach. The name is derived from the fact that the large ladder is mounted on a turntable on the back of a
chassis, allowing it to pivot around a stable base. To increase its length, the ladder is . Modern telescopic ladders are either
or . These mechanical features allow the use of ladders which are longer, sturdier, and more stable. They may also have pre-attached hoses or other equipment.
A ladder can also be mounted behind the cab. This is sometimes called "mid-ship" and the arrangement allows a shorter wheelbase for the truck, and also can be more stable in certain conditions.
Several aerial apparatus in use at a fire in
The key functions of a turntable ladder are:
Allowing access or egress of firefighters and fire victims at height
Providing a high-level water point for firefighting (elevated master stream)
Providing a platform from which tasks such as ventilation or overhaul can be executed
While the traditional characteristic of a fire appliance was a lack of water pumping or storage, many modern TLs have a water pumping function built in (and some have their own on-board supply reservoir), and may have a pre-piped waterway running the length of the ladder which directs a stream of water to the firefighters at the top. In some cases, there may also be a
at the top of the ladder for ease of use. Other appliances may simply have a track-way which will hold a manually-run hose reel securely, and prevent it from falling to the ground.
In the United States, some turntable ladders with additional functions such as an onboard pump, a water tank, , aerial ladder and multiple , are known as quad or
engines, indicating the number of functions they perform.
Tiller Truck[]
Tiller-quint of the
manufactured by
A tiller truck, also known as a tractor-drawn aerial, tiller ladder, or hook-and-ladder truck, is a specialized turntable ladder mounted on a . Unlike a commercial semi, the trailer and tractor are permanently combined and special tools are required to separate them. It has two drivers, with separate
for front and rear wheels.
One of the main features of the tiller-truck is its enhanced maneuverability. The independent steering of the front and back wheels allow the tiller to make much sharper turns which is particularly helpful on narrow streets and apartment complexes with mazelike roads. An additional feature of the tiller-truck is that its overhaul length, over 50 feet (15 m) for most models, allows for additional storage of tools and equipment. The extreme length gives compartment capacities that range between 500 and 650 cubic feet (14 and 18 m3) on the trailer with an additional 40 and 60 cubic feet (1.1 and 1.7 m3) on the cab.
Some departments elect to use tiller-quints (see
below), which are tiller trucks that have the added feature of being fitted with an on-board water tank. These are particularly useful for smaller departments that do not have enough personnel to staff both an engine company and a truck company.
Aerial Platform[]
Telescopic hydraulic platform in ,
Some aerials have a platform, also known as a basket or bucket, mounted at the top of the ladder. These are commonly known as platform trucks. These platforms can provide a secure place from which a firefighter can operate. Many platforms also allow for rescues to be performed and are outfitted with tie down clips and
There are also platform trucks that do not have a ladder attached to the platform. These specialized
are capable of
which allows the arm to bend in one or more places. This is an advantage over the traditional platform ladder which can only extend in a straight line and gives the articulating platform the ability to go "up and over" an obstacle.[]
Main article:
Heavy rescue vehicle with the Fire Bureau in ,
A heavy rescue vehicle, sometimes referred to as a Rescue Company, Rescue Squad or Technical Rescue, is a type of specialty firefighting apparatus. They are primarily designed to carry specialized equipment for
situations such as
following , , , , or .
In addition to fire and rescue departments,
companies may have their own dedicated heavy rescue squads.[] For example, railway rescue squads may carry very specialized equipment, for railway accidents, like hydraulic jacks with capacity for lifting
or even moving them horizontally, and equipment for
accidents.
belonging to the .
Main article:
requires vehicles that can easily negotiate difficult terrain and high-gradient roads, be self-reliant, and have high clearances for wheels and suspension. These
are traditionally smaller than standard fire apparatus and are primarily used for
or . They may also respond to emergencies in rough terrain where other vehicles cannot respond. Most wildland engines feature
capability to improve hill climbing and rough terrain capability. Some wildland apparatus can pump water while driving (compared to some traditional engines which must be stationary to pump water), allowing "running attacks" on vegetation fires to minimize the rate of spread.
Fire departments that serve areas along the
are faced with unique challenges that departments based in larger cities or strictly rural areas do not need to worry about. Departments in these areas often elect to use a type of fire engine commonly referred to as a wildland-urban interface engine or simply interface engines.[] While technically considered a
by many[], these maintain the traditional look and feel of a standard engine.[]
This section does not
any . Please help improve this section by . Unsourced material may be challenged and . (April 2015)
Many fire departments operate a number of vehicles in specialized logistical functions. These can be stand-alone vehicles, or may be modular, such as with the use of a
system. Hooklifts are sometimes only employed for seldom- they can load a variety of different equipment containers very rapidly and act as a special unit with lower investment costs. For example, the
Rescue Department has several hooklift trucks and more than 40 containers, including a water container, a hose container, and an oil destruction container. Containers may also carry a command post, salvage tools, foam barrels, hoses, special pumps for , and .
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command unit, 2009
The advancement of technology and potential for very large-scale incidents has led to many fire departments increasing their use of mobile command support units.
A fundamental advantage of such an appliance is to accommodate the many different types of communication equipment needed at major incidents. In addition to the wide range of radio frequencies used, a
often needs to communicate via landlines and send and receive information via satellite links and
to keep aware of and control the ongoing situation. The command unit can essentially be used as an on-site conference center for command personnel, mapping and planning firefighting operations and directing crews as they arrive.
Main articles:
A tanker capable of holding up to 2,000 gallons of water. This tanker can also act as an engine, as you can see from the pump panel on the side, which is not universal among all tankers in the fire service.
A tanker truck, which can also be known as a
or water , is a specialist fire appliance with the primary purpose of transporting large amounts of water to the fire area to make it available for extinguishing operations. These are especially useful in rural areas where fire hydrants are not readily available and natural water resources are insufficient or difficult to exploit.
Most tankers have an on-board pumping system. This pump is often not of sufficient power to fight fires (as it is designed to be attached to a fire engine), but is more often used to draw water into the tender from hydrants or other water sources. In some areas, the tenders are used to pump water during floods, and may be fitted with a heavier duty pump for this purpose. Many tankers are equipped with fast-drain valves on the sides and back of the truck. This allows firefighters to empty thousands of gallons of water into a
in just a few seconds.
Most water tenders are designed to carry loads of 1,000 US gallons (3,800 L; 830 imp gal) or more.
Crash 3 responding to a call at .
Main article:
An , or "crash rig", is a specialized fire engine designed for use at
accidents. Some of the features that make the crash rigs unique are their ability to move on rough terrain outside the
and airport area, large water capacity as well as a
tank, a high-capacity pump, and water/foam . Newer
vehicles also incorporate
nozzles/injection systems to inject a stream of
dry chemical into the AFFF (Aqueous Film Forming Fluroprotein) foam stream, which "flattens" the fire faster. Some also have Halotron tanks with handlines for fires which must be extinguished with a dry chemical similar to the ones which can be found in a fire extinguisher. These features give the airport crash tenders a capability to reach an airplane rapidly, and rapidly extinguish large fires with
fire truck in
Other fire apparatus include:
Swap-Body vehicles which use a specialized hitch and hydraulic system to be able to easily change bodies for various situations- these are common in Europe
Fire/Arson Investigation Unit
Dive/Marine Rescue Unit
Operational Support Unit
Animal Rescue Unit
Rescue and firefighting robot
equipment trucks
Crane trucks
Squad/Utility Unit
Other watercraft support such as ,
In some communities a fire apparatus, often a paramedic engine, will be used to carry first responder firefighters,
because of their faster response times due to forward staging in the city. Fire departments may also have lifeguards in places such as .
Main article:
fire engine with
The design and construction of fire engines focuses greatly on the use of both active and passive warnings. Passive visual warnings involve the use of high contrast patterns to increase the noticeability of the vehicle. These types of warnings are often seen on older vehicles and those in . More modern designs make use of
to reflect light from other vehicles. Vehicles will also often have these reflectors arranged in a
pattern along with the words fire or rescue. European countries commonly use a pattern known as .[] Along with the passive warnings, are active visual warnings which are usually in the form of flashing colored lights (also known as "" or ""). These flash to attract the attention of other drivers as the fire truck approaches, or to provide warning to drivers approaching a parked fire truck in a dangerous position on the road. The lights are always accompanied by loud .
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One of the simplest forms of hand tub type fire engines, engraving from the mid 17th century in Germany
An early device used to squirt water onto a fire was known as a squirt or fire syringe. Hand squirts and hand pumps are noted before
invented the first fire pump around the 2nd century B.C., and an example of a force-pump possibly used for a fire-engine is mentioned by . The fire pump was reinvented in Europe during the 16th century, reportedly used in
in 1518 and
in 1657. A book of 1655 inventions mentions a steam engine (called a fire engine) pump used to "raise a column of water 40 feet (12 m)", but there was no mention of whether it was portable.
Colonial laws in America required each house to have a bucket of water on the front stoop during fires at night. These buckets were intended for use by the initial
that would supply the water at fires.
obtained a hand-pumped fire engine in 1719, years after 's 1654 model appeared there, made by , but before New York's two engines arrived from London.
By 1730, , in London, had made suc he invented the first ones used in
(in 1731) (this was six years before formation of the NYC volunteer fire department). The amount of manpower and skill necessary for firefighting prompted
to found an organized fire company in 1737.
built the first fire engine made in America in 1743. These earliest engines are called hand tubs because they are manually (hand) powered and the water was supplied by a bucket brigade dumping it into a tub (cistern) where the pump had a permanent intake pipe. An important advancement around 1822 was the invention of an engine which could draft water from a water source. This rendered the bucket brigade obsolete. In 1822, a Philadelphia-based manufacturing company called Sellers and Pennock made a model called "The Hydraulion". It is said to be the first suction engine. Some models had the hard, suction hose fixed to the intake and curled up over the apparatus known as a squirrel tail engine.
Manually drawn fire pump in service in
The earliest engines were small and were either carried by four men, or mounted on skids and dragged to a fire. As the engines grew larger they became horse-drawn and later self-propelled by steam engines.
is credited with building the first American steam-powered fire engine.
built the first steam fire-engine in .
Until the mid-19th century, most fire engines were maneuvered by men, but the introduction of horse-drawn fire engines considerably improved the response time to incidents. The first self-propelled steam-driven fire engine was built in New York in 1841. Unfortunately for the manufacturers, some firefighters sabotaged the device and its use was discontinued. Motorized fire engines did not become commonplace until the early 20th century. By 1905, the idea of combining gas engine motor trucks into fire engines was attrac according to a
article in that year, such trucks were rapidly gaining popularity in England. That same year, the
began selling what some have described as the world's first modern fire engine. A year later, the City of Springfield, Illinois had filled their fire department with Knox engines.
For many years firefighters sat on the sides of the fire engines, or even stood on the rear of the vehicles, exposed to the elements. This arrangement was uncomfortable and dangerous (some firefighters were thrown to their deaths when their fire engines made sharp turns on the road), and today nearly all fire engines have fully enclosed seating areas for their crews.
Early pumpers used cisterns as a source of water. Water was later put into wooden pipes under the streets and a "fire plug" was pulled out of the top of the pipe when a suction hose was to be inserted. Later systems incorporated pressurized , where the pressure was increased when a fire alarm was sounded. This was found to be harmful to the system and unreliable. Today's valved hydrant systems are kept under pressure at all times, although additional pressure may be added when needed. Pressurized hydrants eliminate much of the work in obtaining water for pumping through the engine and into the attack hoses. Many rural fire engines still rely upon cisterns or other sources for drafting water into the pumps.
In the late 19th century, means of reaching tall structures were devised. At first, manually extendab as these grew in length (and weight), they were put onto two large wheels. When carried by fire engines these ladders had the wheels suspended behind the rear of the vehicle, making them a distinctive sight. Before long, the turntable ladder— which was even longer, mechanically extendable, and installed directly onto a fire truck— made its appearance.
The longest turntable ladders have reached a height of 150 feet (46 m), requiring the aforementioned "tiller trucks" to carry such ladders.
turntable ladders were supplemented by the
(sometimes called "cherry picker"), a platform or bucket attached onto a mechanically bending arm (or "snorkel") installed onto a fire truck. While these could not reach the height of similar turntable ladders, the platforms could extend into previously unreachable "dead corners" of a burning building.
, improved the design of the fire engine in 1672
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Website about handtubs in the U.S. including a database of all known apparatus.
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