Fire Engines Photos

It occurs to me that FDNY's seven squad companies are deployed, organized and trained in ways which are rather comparable to very many European fire services.

In short, they are trained to operate as engine, truck, rescue or hazmat companies, depending on the incident and their position in the sequence of responding companies.

This is not much different from the roles taken on by pump crews in major European cites, where anything except a rescue pump is usually only crewed by one or two members. As a result, regular pump crews take on the jobs of manning and utilizing all of the "specials" - according to the needs presented by the situation.

In some ways it seems to be that the "hard lines" between engine and truck companies in many US cities no longer make much sense. This is especially true where the departments are limited by budgetary constraints to having only four - or even three - crew on each rig.

Some cities, including Los Angeles, have long ago abandoned the company segregation model in favor of a "Task Force". This consists of two engines, an aerial, an ambulance and a chief's buggy - almost exactly replicating the traditional German Loeschzug, where every member is trained to do what's needed without any rigid role separations.

Added by Rob Johnson on 22 September 2019.

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