Should a fire department use unmarked fire vehicles verses identified vehicles?

Recent FFN discussion revealed that in some jurisdictions, some fire department vehicles are intentionally, and often times at great expense, disguised to look like an everyday ordinary Joe Citizen vehicle.

Is being "low-key" of value to the fire service?
Should we choose generic colored vehicles to blend in with hidden lights and sirens like the law enforcement detectives?
Or, should we use identified vehicles that have conspicuous markings identifying the vehicle as being a part of the fire department?
What does your department do?

This takes stealth to new levels... taxi-police car...

This is out-of-the-box thinking I suppose...

There's always the good ol' Ford Crown Vic...

Is it really that "stealth"?

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Permalink Reply by Greenman on June 4, 2010 at 7:43am

ROFL.

The smell would give 'em away every time!

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Permalink Reply by Philip J DiMartino on June 12, 2010 at 11:13pm

I think police and fire should have there own distinctive markings.

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Permalink Reply by FF Nick on June 13, 2010 at 8:16am

I've recently just found out that in my state (MS) If the vehicle has a state issued government tag, it has to be decaled for the agency that owns it. Now this could range from "Jackson County Fire District" in 2 inch letters down at the bottom of a door to full out striped lettered and marked with "Call 911"

This would truly mean that no vehicle would be truly "unmarked", however if you choose the former over the latter it would be a bit harder to distinguish but still would be identifiable nonetheless.

To be truly unmarked the vehicle would have to be registered with a regular state tag.

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Permalink Reply by Tony P on June 14, 2010 at 7:48am

I'll mention this reason again "There are also officers who may purchase a vehicle under their work contract for both business and private use". I see that as a perfectly valid reason to not have the vehicle covered in identifying signs and visible lights/siren. This may be the only vehicle the person has (they may not have any space to leave another one sitting around the house safely). They may not want to drive out to buy food or alcohol in a marked vehicle; just think about all the complaints that action can raise!

There can be valid reasons. Just as there can be wankers - though I'd think that most of them would be more likely to have multiple light stuck on their vehicle, just to show everybody 'what they are'.

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Permalink Reply by Spanner 122 on June 14, 2010 at 8:46am

I don't understand the benefit of a fire vehicle being inconspicuous, especially going to great expense to do so. Can anyone explain the benefit of this? Lights and sirens.

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Permalink Reply by ff/emt 2155 on June 14, 2010 at 9:53am

PUT THIS ONE TO BED ALREADY PLEASE

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Permalink Reply by 55 TRUCK on July 17, 2010 at 10:00pm

We have both..The Arson guys drive the unmarked crown vics etc. Some have a small badge sticker in the front quater pannel. THey are firefighters who carry bullet pushers & having arrestiong powers. Here the Arson investigator unit is set up in teams. A firefighter with a Police officer.The Cops are all former gang or vice cops. Somtimes there in unmarked fire dept vehicles somtimes there in cop cars.
The other ones are those used by our SWAT medics they have take homw cars just like the arson unit. Our SWAT Medics are Sworn Firefighter Medics who also Carry Bullet Pushers, they are on a on call rotation.
Besides that most are marked in some fashion.
To tell the truth I really don't care what the Chief,Deputy Chief,Special ops Chief,Dive Commander, Quater master,Chaplains etc. Drive marked,unmarked,half marked..As Long as My Truck is RED.
Firemen in the Companies have better things to worry about.
God Bless

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Permalink Reply by Pascal Marchand on July 17, 2010 at 11:54pm

Personaly i'd say fire service vehicules should be identified and visible. But as an example in my dept. the service has recently decided to strip of their lettering and identifications all the division chiefs and above. I think this is mainly because all of these members keep their vehicules at homes. I think that's the main reason why they went to a more discret vehicule.

Pascal

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Permalink Reply by Kirk D. Baughman on July 18, 2010 at 10:01am

why do you want a unmark vehicle? for our safety we need all vehicles marked. look at how many people gets pulled over by people acting like cops in unmark cars. you are just asking for trouble if you start unmarking your vehicles. what if some crazy person pulls up on a medical that ends up to be a code?? i think that should prove my point. mark all vehicles even cops needs to go back to all mark cars.

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Permalink Reply by Donald Warnet on July 18, 2010 at 12:18pm

I have read the previous replies and while I agree they probably should not be unmarked lets not forget the small volunteer communities. Until these small towns see the need to have marked vehicles for their Chiefs to respond in, this will be an ongoing issue. Alot of small towns across the US do not have the money to procure new or even used vehicles for this usage. Up until 4 years ago I had to use my personal vehicle. I will not letter, cut/drill holes in my personal vehicle. Quite a few of my neighboring communities are faced with the same problem usage of personal vehicles to answer fire calls as Chief officers.