Fire Engines Photos

Stingers and Scorpions have a piercing nozzle which enables water or foam delivery inside a structure, which is a massive improvement over these older squirts. Just as long as the roof or wall is thin enough to get the prong through it!

Added by Rob Johnson on 27 December 2025.

Glasgow Scooshers had spikes back in the 60s.

Added by Neal Glover on 28 December 2025.

confirmation here of the presence of a spike

www.sfbheritagetrust.org/featured/featured_1a_6.htm

Added by Petros on 29 December 2025.

I know the latest piercing spikes on these new variants were originally specified to pierce the rather thin aluminum of airplanes, so it’s not clear if the newer ones can get through brick, concrete, stone, tile or even steel construction materials. Let’s hope so! I hear from some sources that these new appliances are actually mainly being deployed as compact water towers, especially at recycling sites. This is of course not a problem, but not quite what they were meant to be most useful for. I can’t help wondering if these are not a tool looking for a role, especially as municipal and county brigades went for decades without replacing their Schooshers, Simonitors or PHPs, and did not seem to miss them. Now that aerial monitors can universally be operated remotely from the ground with infrared cameras it is no longer necessary to endanger operators in toxic smoke or zero visibility, so a short reach aerial does not seem to make much sense unless it is yet another penny pinching idea.

Ed: I think for piercing skins of light industrial buildings often on recycling sites?

Added by Rob Johnson on 30 December 2025.

Perhaps, but most of the recycling fires I have seen on screen in the U.K. and numerous other countries appear to be pretty much outdoor events, and on a scale requiring multiple elevated and ground fire attack lines, so a single piercing nozzle pumper looks like in many cases it would be rather limited added value. The one country which uses short booms with monitors at recycling fires is Japan, but these are not equipped for piercing. Apart from high rise structures, Japanese firefighters rarely attempt indoor fire attack tactics as the flammable nature of domestic structures and contents inevitably results in very rapid flashover and fire extension. The approach is to focus on protecting exposures rather than bothering trying to save the building of origin. This is very often the focus of fire departments in the US too, when wooden structures are close together

Added by Rob Johnson on 30 December 2025.

GMC Fire Service took over a Ford Simonitor from Lancs. It then passed to West Yorks Who rechassisd it as a Foam Tender .

Ed: The booms ended up on a Volvo FL614 in West Yorkshire F848SHD, bodied by workshops I think. There images here

www.fireflash-delta64.co.uk/chaddertonarch.html

Added by Neal Glover on 31 December 2025.

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