Fire Engines Photos

This city of close to 300, 000 has seventeen fire stations grouped into five divisions. Station 11 has an aerial, a rescue and a division chief's unit in addition to this engine. The rather elegant black over red livery originated in Chicago in the 1930s and is rather uncommon in Florida, while still being very popular with fire departments around the Chicago area.

Its not clear where the moustache came from, though!

Added by Rob Johnson on 09 November 2020.

Rob, Moustache November, an annual event when guys grow moustaches in November to raise awareness for men's health issues.

Ed we don't have a maker for this rig.

Added by Pav on 12 November 2020.

It is a Sutphen - identified by the unique front light clusters, which have both side and front facing lights. The five vertical bars on the grille are also a Sutphen trademark.

Added by Rob Johnson on 13 November 2020.

Comment removed at request of Commentor

Andy:
They have been building fire apparatus since 1890 - a 130 year record, and they may be the oldest firm in the USA to do so. It comes close to Magirus and Metz, but both of them are no longer owned by the founding families.

Added by Rob Johnson on 16 November 2020.

Comment removed at request of Commentor

Andy: These visits must have been very interesting. I expect you were struck by the extent to which US fire departments - and especially volunteer outfits - customize their vehicles, even if they do still use a lot of standard components. I think this trend is getting even stronger these days, as fire departments increasingly want to add features and new capacities to front line engines, rescues and ladder trucks...

There seems to be staffing pressure in many places, so that departments want the first due piece of apparatus and its crew to be able to handle just about any kind of incident.

Added by Rob Johnson on 17 November 2020.

Comment removed at request of Commentor

Andy, as far as I know, the first rescue pumps were the result of a 1984 prototype Mercedes 1224 low profile pump commissioned by the Berlin fire service in 1984, and actually captured by JP in photo 19099 on this site.

So, the concept is not all that new, but - like so many other innovations - it has taken quite a while for rescue pumpers to become the standard in many places.

And in some countries, they remain a rarity or are still simply unknown!

Added by Rob Johnson on 19 November 2020.

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