This is a simple awareness post that in my opinion, can be very useful for half the countries fire departments at a minimum... Only 43 out of 50 states have the option to purchase specialized fire department vehicle license plates for their personal vehicles. In many cases, money spent for these special license plates are earmarked for specific charities or things designed to help out fallen firefighters families. For those 7 states that do not have a vanity plate for firefighters, I ask why not? Again, this is another way to get both recognition in a quiet / non-emergency lights and whacker looking vehicles kind of a way. And you might be able to help someone out. Just a thought...  


Another option that to be frank, surprised me was the lack of dedicated license plates identifying volunteer firefighters. Only New Mexico appears to have a license plate that is for volunteer firefighters. Considering that the majority of firefighters are volunteer department related, seems to me that this would be appropriate, but that's just my opinion. Chances are, you might not have even thought about it until now... And, maybe folks might not want to be differentiated from volunteer verses full time paid, not that it really matters. What's your opinion?


Bonus Question: Which states do not have firefighter license plates?


TCSS, 

CBz


The following states (43) have firefighter license plates.

  1. Alabama
  2. Arizona
  3. Arkansas
  4. California
  5. Colorado
  6. Connecticut
  7. Delaware
  8. Florida
  9. Georgia
  10. Hawaii
  11. Idaho
  12. Illinois
  13. Indiana
  14. Iowa
  15. Kentucky
  16. Louisiana
  17. Maryland
  18. Massachusetts
  19. Maine
  20. Maryland
  21. Michigan
  22. Minnesota
  23. Mississippi
  24. Montana
  25. New Jersey
  26. New Mexico
  27. New York
  28. Nevada
  29. North Carolina
  30. Ohio
  31. Oklahoma
  32. Oregon
  33. Pennsylvania
  34. South Carolina
  35. South Dakota
  36. Tennessee
  37. Texas
  38. Utah
  39. Virginia
  40. Washington
  41. West Virginia
  42. Wisconsin
  43. Wyoming

There is of course a chance that my research was not exactly thorough. I admit it right up front, but this is as good as I can do without additional input from others. Please let me know if your state is already providing the option for firefighters to purchase firefighter vanity plates.














































  




 




 















Note: Thank you "PL8MAN" Buddy Harris!  Please note that Buddy is trying to complete his collection of fire department license plates for real...   Click here to see more license plates, but none of the ones that are still missing from this discussion post.


Updated: April 10, 2010


Views: 12892

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Here in Illinois we have them, but you don't have to be a Firefighter to get them. They're actually sold to fund the Fallen Firefighter's Memorial in Springfield. For a while there was a problem with gang bangers buying them because they figured the Cops would assume they were off duty FF's and leave them alone! Now there is a movement to get the State to issue EMS plates, although it's unknown if they will be restricted to EMS personnel only. Stay safe!
Is the plate you are referring too the same one as pictured below? Take care Brian!

As a country that does not have POV with lights, or personalised plates, I question why they're needed.

There's enough d*ckheads on the road, driving like morons who would only bring even more unwanted attention to the deaprtment. This again, highlights to the public that next time you do a burnout in your car, that you're a member of the FD. Great publicity that'd be.

Bad news to me, I think.....
I can only talk for my department but we pride ourselves on screening our members and trying to weed out the wackers that would do a burn out ,however nothing is a hundred percent so if a licence plate would lead to identification of a member that does this,then great. We do tell all our members that if they choose to put a department plate on their vehicle that they are responsible for any act identified to that vehicle. The rules are written and clearly specify the consequences of noncompliance. As I said before the plates are not allowed until a 2 year probationary service term is served and then must be approved by the senior officers.
Fair call- I hadn't thought about the positive of them being identifed....
Yes, although that is the old version. The new version has larger letters/numbers and a smaller graphic. The reason being that the State thought that people would buy these plates because the numbers were harder to make out than the regulation size numbers that the rest of the State's plates had!
The tag posted for NC is for Professional Firefighters, they also have one for Volunteer Fire and Recsue
There are more Volunteer firefighters than there are professional firefighters in the United States
Vermont has a Fire / Rescue Plate...........
Justin, Having the plates available is not about how many but about who is willing to put the time in to make it happen. I someone wants the plate to happen for their group, then get organized and get it done.
Actually, TN has an IAFF tag with a portion of proceeds going to TN Firefighters Emergency Relief Fund.
We have a couple of firefighter plates and some for rescue and EMTs. The FF plate you don't show is for POV (full-time, volunteer, retired) and none of the fee goes to charity. The IAFF can be used by anyone who is a member of IAFF with about $15.00 going to TN Firefighters Emergency Relief Fund.

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