Fire Engines Photos

Looks as if some equipment is missing from the right-hand(Officer's) side - ground ladders, perhaps ?

Added by Pat Rivers-Bowerman on 28 May 2010.

Comment removed at request of Commentor

Why do Chicago have green beacons please?

Added by Bristol Bob on 29 October 2012.

Comment removed at request of Commentor

Thanks Andy.

Added by Bristol Bob on 30 October 2012.

Chicago has 99 active engine companies, and the great majority of their rigs are these Spartan Luverne pumpers. Like most big city engines here, they have a 1500 GPM pump and a 500 gallon tank, and have seating for a five-person crew. They also carry an EMS first responder kit, and attend medical calls in cases where it is estimated they can be on scene before a CFD ambulance can get there.

The additional green light, which has been a Chicago city tradition for many decades, has also spread to quite a few suburban departments here, as has the black over red livery. But CFD's large ambulance fleet has not adopted either of these, and remain white with both white and red lights.

The Chicago police department is one of realtively few in the US who have exclusively blue lights on their cars - and they have a British style chequered band on their hats, too!

Added by Rob Johnson on 24 September 2013.

The Chicago fire commissioner at the time loved boats and wanted to add them to the cities rigs for good luck the green light stands for good luck that everyone riding in the unit will go to the call safely and will return from the call safely. Here's some text from the CFD's History PD file "Fire Commissioner Goodrich’s family also owned a steamship line. He was well aware of the required red and green lights on ships identifying their port & starboard sides, allowing for safe passing during inclement weather. The red and green lights were installed on fire apparatus and stations based upon this nautical theme. The City purchased 28 Model “A” Fords for their Battalion Chiefs. The roofs of the cars were a tar composition that could not be painted and were left black while the bottoms were painted red. This color scheme has prevailed till today. The intertwined CFD logo was adopted during this period." The buggy's were left black because a firefighter thought it looked kinda cool and so it stayed that way then it eventually moved onto the other rigs in the department.

Added by Brandan Payne on 21 November 2016.

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