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Fire Engine Photos
LCO318 Dennis F8 Plymouth/Devon
Purchased in 1955 by Plymouth City Fire Brigade for Torr Fire Station. When Torr was closed it was on the run at the new Crownhill Station. Served in Plymouth for all its life laterly used for training and driver training. Note rolling siren.
Rare Coventry 1958 Dennis F12 ET in background VVC898 owned by Dr Barry Hutchinson.
Late Alastair Collins collection - used with permission.
Purchased in 1955 by Plymouth City Fire Brigade for Torr Fire Station. When Torr was closed it was on the run at the new Crownhill Station. Served in Plymouth for all its life laterly used for training and driver training. Note rolling siren.
Rare Coventry 1958 Dennis F12 ET in background VVC898 owned by Dr Barry Hutchinson.
Late Alastair Collins collection - used with permission.
Comment removed at request of Commentor
There's something of a pattern here. Many city and large town brigades, especially in the midlands and north of England, fitted sirens in the '50s, but county brigades just stuck with bells. My own city, Leeds, fitted sirens from 1954, but West Riding County, covering many of the smaller towns surrounding, didn't. Chester City used rolling sirens, Cheshire County didn't. Were the county councils just mean? The only one I know of that fitted sirens was Hampshire.
Added by Steve on 12 June 2020.
Added by Steve on 12 June 2020.
Perhaps city brigades tended to encounter more traffic congestion and thought sirens would be an additional and useful way of overcoming this problem.
Another story which I've heard - and it is probably only a story - is that the sound of sirens caused farm animals to panic and rush about, which discouraged county brigades from using them!
Added by Rob Johnson on 13 June 2020.
Another story which I've heard - and it is probably only a story - is that the sound of sirens caused farm animals to panic and rush about, which discouraged county brigades from using them!
Added by Rob Johnson on 13 June 2020.
Hello Rob, nice to hear from you. I do like the tale about farm animals panicking!
Slightly off subject for this site, but some British ambulance services fitted sirens too, including Leeds (of course!), Manchester and, I believe, Bath. These were not rolling sirens but small, very high pitched sirens of the type fitted to some fairground rides. They were used from the '60s until the almost universal adoption of two tones in the 1970's.
Added by Steve on 14 June 2020.
Slightly off subject for this site, but some British ambulance services fitted sirens too, including Leeds (of course!), Manchester and, I believe, Bath. These were not rolling sirens but small, very high pitched sirens of the type fitted to some fairground rides. They were used from the '60s until the almost universal adoption of two tones in the 1970's.
Added by Steve on 14 June 2020.
Comment removed at request of Commentor
In Germany, four tone air horns have been uniformly used by all emergency services - along with blue lights - for the last eighty pus years.
This has had the advantage that other motorists don't have to try to figure out what is coming, and know that it might easily be a police vehicle.
In addition, it is a serious offence not to yield to any emergency vehicle displaying blue lights and using air horns, and the fine can be very steep.
As all emergency vehicles in Germany now tend to have dashcams, any driver who does not yield has a very good chance of being ticketed.
Added by Rob Johnson on 15 June 2020.
This has had the advantage that other motorists don't have to try to figure out what is coming, and know that it might easily be a police vehicle.
In addition, it is a serious offence not to yield to any emergency vehicle displaying blue lights and using air horns, and the fine can be very steep.
As all emergency vehicles in Germany now tend to have dashcams, any driver who does not yield has a very good chance of being ticketed.
Added by Rob Johnson on 15 June 2020.
Always liked the rolling sirens on Teesside's fire engines as you could tell it was a fire engine as Police and Ambulance had two tones. In fact the numerous Police Minis had no sirens or even a blue light which always seemed very silly.
Ed: I guess the Minis were panda cars which were not allowed warning devices. I remember police driving round here with their hand on the ordinary horn!
Added by CraigW on 16 June 2020.
Ed: I guess the Minis were panda cars which were not allowed warning devices. I remember police driving round here with their hand on the ordinary horn!
Added by CraigW on 16 June 2020.
Rob, Yes, I've seen and heard various continental types of siren/horn on YouTube. The German Martin horns sound very harmonious to me, but my favourites are the Italians. Is there a name for these highly distinctive horns?
Ed: N Wales FRS use Martin horns.
Added by Steve on 18 June 2020.
Ed: N Wales FRS use Martin horns.
Added by Steve on 18 June 2020.
Craig: It’s interesting that mechanical sirens were the giveaway that it was a Fire engine approaching and two tones were police/EMS. These days, although every service uses electronic now - you could possibly the same about Two tones being the giveaway for a fire engine and the electronic sirens being police and Ambulances - I know in North Wales that’s very much the case since the fire engines there only use Martin horns!
On a side note I’m Australian so this is purely by observation, but in the past we used rolling mechanical sirens on every emergency vehicle long before the UK did - from the early 1920s at least. Bells in fact, weren’t really used at all. It was only around the 1950s or 60s we started introducing trumpet-type two tones on our rural/ bush fire engines. Urban fire brigades, police and ambulances stuck to mechanical sirens until the 1970s when we started using German two tones AND electronic sirens at the same time, albeit they were the Bosch and Hella disc-horn type known as Starktonhorns. We have only been fully electronic for the last 40 years or so.
Added by Vander B on 22 April 2025.
On a side note I’m Australian so this is purely by observation, but in the past we used rolling mechanical sirens on every emergency vehicle long before the UK did - from the early 1920s at least. Bells in fact, weren’t really used at all. It was only around the 1950s or 60s we started introducing trumpet-type two tones on our rural/ bush fire engines. Urban fire brigades, police and ambulances stuck to mechanical sirens until the 1970s when we started using German two tones AND electronic sirens at the same time, albeit they were the Bosch and Hella disc-horn type known as Starktonhorns. We have only been fully electronic for the last 40 years or so.
Added by Vander B on 22 April 2025.
Dennis
Added by Steve on 10 June 2020.