One of the largest fire apparatus companies in the US, it was founded in 1913 by Humphrey Pierce and his son Dudley as the Pierce Auto Body Works Inc., and concentrated on building custom truck bodies for the Ford Model T. The first production facility was designed in 1917 and enlarged in 1918 by architect Wallace W.

However, the Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company coincidentally supplied 8- and 12-cylinder engines to Seagrave for use in their fire apparatus.

The Florida facility is a manufacturing site for the custom Saber chassis and Responder line of apparatus.

[citation needed] End-users are represented across a larger majority of the planet, including China.

The single largest municipal fleet of Pierce Manufacturing apparatus is located within the 407 square miles of Fairfax County, Virginia.