Fire engine
Many fire engines are based on a commercial vehicle chassis that is further upgraded and customized for firefighting requirements.
While the fire truck is headed towards the scene, the lights are always accompanied by loud audible warnings such as sirens and air horns.
[1] Some fire engines in the United States are lime yellow rather than red due to safety and ergonomics reasons.
A 2009 study by the U.S. Fire Administration concluded that fluorescent colors, including yellow-green and orange, are easiest to spot in daylight.
[3] In some regions, a fire engine may be used to transport first responder firefighters, paramedics or EMTs to medical emergencies due to their proximity to the incident.
The tools carried on the fire engine will vary greatly based on many factors including the size of the department and the usual situations the firefighters handle.
[7] The preconnects are attached to the engine's onboard water supply and allow firefighters to quickly mount an aggressive attack on the fire as soon as they arrive on scene.
An aerial apparatus is a fire truck mounted with an extendable boom that enables firefighters to reach high locations.
The key functions of a turntable ladder are allowing access or egress of firefighters and fire victims at height, providing a high-level water point for firefighting (elevated master stream), and providing a platform from which tasks such as ventilation or overhaul can be executed.
Unlike a commercial semi, the trailer and tractor are permanently combined and special tools are required to separate them.
[14] The independent steering of the front and back wheels allow the tiller to make much sharper turns, which is particularly helpful on narrow streets and in apartment complexes with maze-like roads.
[14] Some departments elect to use tiller-quints, which are tiller trucks that have the added feature of being fitted with an on-board water tank.
These are especially useful in rural areas where fire hydrants are not readily available and natural water resources are insufficient or difficult to exploit.
[20] An airport crash tender is a specialized fire engine designed for use at aerodromes in aircraft accidents.
This was made possible by a rotating pipe mounted on the hose which allowed the jet to reach heights up to 20 m (65.6 ft).
Caspar Schott observed Hautsch's fire engine in 1655 and wrote an account of it in his Magia Universalis.
[24] Colonial laws in America required each house to have a bucket of water on the front stoop in preparation for fires at night.
He also invented those first used in New York City in 1731 where the amount of manpower and skill necessary for firefighting prompted Benjamin Franklin to found an organized fire company in 1737.
[25] Some models had the hard, suction hose fixed to the intake and curled up over the apparatus known as a squirrel tail engine.
Motorised fire engines date back to January 1897, when the Prefect of Police in Paris applied for funds to purchase "a machine worked by petroleum for the traction of a fire-engine, ladders, and so forth and for the conveyance of the necessary staff of pompiers".
[27] With great prescience the report states "If the experiment prove successful, as is anticipated, horses will eventually be entirely replaced by automobiles".
That same year, the Knox Automobile Company of Springfield, Massachusetts, began selling what some[29] have described as the world's first modern fire engine.
Another early motorized fire engine was developed by Peter Pirsch and Sons of Kenosha, Wisconsin.
[30] For many years firefighters sat on the sides of the fire engines, or even stood on the rear of the vehicles, exposed to the elements.
Pressurized hydrants eliminate much of the work in obtaining water for pumping through the engine and into the attack hoses.
While these could not reach the height of similar turntable ladders, the platforms could extend into previously unreachable "dead corners" of a burning building.
