Fire Engines Photos

This could be a challenge to the British Fire Services.... I am waiting for the first Fire Engine to be painted up in the Union Flag.

I know, well, at least, there have been British Double-Decker Buses done up that way......

Ooops, better go now.
From Canada,
Pat_R-B

Added by Pat Rivers-Bowerman on 12 September 2008.

I don't know about you Canadians, Pat, but I think us Brits have got more taste! (Stiff upper lip and all that!) After all, fire appliances are built for a purpose and not to look pretty*/ridiculous* [*delete as appropriate]. To all you Americans reading this: don't get too upset, I'm laughing as I type this!

I do tend to find that trucks decorated like this are a little OTT though. And I'm convinced that no fire service in Britain has cash to waste on gaudy customized paint-jobs, not while they find their budgets ever squeezed.

Added by Yelp Bullhorn on 12 September 2008.

A lot of USofA Fire-Trucks were done up like this, in 1976, to celebrate the Bicentennial of the American Revolution/War of Independence. Something to do with getting out, from under a certain colonial power. [I won't give out any names !]

It did my area some good, though; as a number of the losers, er, King George III Loyalists, fled their American homes; and settled up here in the St John River, New Brunswick - to prosper and multiply.

There are only a few trucks now, preserving these colours - Gee, at least, it isn't as bad as the Bilious Green/Yellow era, for High-Visibility.

And every-one is getting back to proper Fire-Engine Red...... Regards, from Canada, Pat_R-B

Added by Pat Rivers-Bowerman on 18 September 2008.

Hey Pat, Brigades on this side of the pond aren't all immune from painting their wagons in awful colour schemes. Take a look at picture 4249. Let me know your thoughts.

Imagine if history had been a little different though: American firefighters could all be driving round in Dennises!

Added by Yelp Bullhorn on 19 September 2008.

Yelp B. : I had a look at Picture 4249 - Oh Brother (:<) !

Picture 4237 is of another "Yellow" Dennis.....
D'you know, when I was a young and callow 3rd Mate in our Coast Guard - I did see a Dennis, in service, in North America, AND painted yellow.

I was ashore, in the Newfoundland Out-Port of Catalina, and saw it through the windows of the local Volunteer Fire Department. It resembled the F-8 's shown on this 'Site, with the flat, split, "sad-eyed" windshield, and "Dennis" across the front. The other trucks, also yellow, were North American manufacture.

The fire-hall was all locked up, and no one about, to ask questions of - so, to this day, I wonder how that Brtish Fire-Engine got there.

Regards, from Canada, Pat_R-B

Added by Pat Rivers-Bowerman on 20 September 2008.

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