After a Mutual Aid Fire the other night,I got to thinking that helmet colors on the fire ground should be standardized somehow.This after I made an Observation that a "Black Hat" was giving orders.I fallowed along of course,with him being odviously my senior firefighter.But as the night went on I glanced over at his helmet,and realized that the "rockers" on his helmet said,"ASST.CHIEF",an so did the back of his coat.I thought this was odd,since all the other Chiefs where wearing White helmets.And I also noticed other Officers & Us Crew wearing various colors.Mostly Yellow & Black.This was confusing.Our Fire District Helmet Colors are as fallows...
White-Chief (& Capt.until 1988) Yellow w/White Shield-Capt. Yellow w/Black Shield-Lieu. Blue-Company EMS Capt./Lt. Red w/ White Shield-Safety Officer Black-Firefighter Orange-Explorer Orange Hard Hat-Fire Police.
What are your Company's Helmet colors?,and Do you think there should be a Standard?
Update:Tiger Schmittendorf has let me know that there is NO STANDARD In The United States.But Still The Question Looms Should There Be?

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In my department the chief's helmet is white. the assistant chief,captain,1st lt. and 2nd lt. are all red and the fire fighters are black.
I Think that they should be standard as Chief, Asst. Chief and Safty Officer Should be White. Capt.'s Should be Red Lt. Should be Yellow and Firefighters should be Black and Jr's and/or Explorers should be orange and blue should be all EMS Personal
Chiefs- Bullard PX WHITE, Bullard UST6 WHITE.
Capt / LT- Bullard PX RED, Bullard UST6 RED
FF- We are given a choice between a Modern Bullard PX which has to be yellow, Or a traditional Bullard UST6 which have to be black.
Chaplain- Blue.
All of our personnel are ems trained so we have no need for ems officers. Excl. our MSO which is a Capt. anyway. Its pretty much Standardized this way throughout the county.
In the area where I work, Northern Illinois, there is a typical, unofficial standard of: FFs (black), Lt & Capt (Red), BC & Chiefs (White). But my department is (of course) different: We have FF (Black w/ yellow stickers), Lt & Capt (Black w/ Blue stickers), BC & Chief (white w/ yellow stickers). As far as I know, our department is the only one in the Chicago area that does this.
My dept. helmet colors are used by ranking. Officers have the white helm, Safety Officer and Chief Engineer has red helm, Firefighter !st Class and Firefighters use the black helm and Probationaries has a yellow helm. This helps us identify who is giving orders o the fire ground and who to watch out for.
See i can see what you mean but if your on a mutual aid call you dont no who your suposta be looking for to get your asignment you they made it all the same it would less confuising on the fire sence we all no it is hecktic on a senec as it is.
in our dept it's
chiefs- white
captains- red
firefighters-black
probies-yellow (big nasty ugly looking yellow helmets)
i agree with what your saying here it would be easier to have a set standard there are departments around me thats where all red and all yellow confusing my deptartment is as follows

Chief - White Helmet White Coat labaled Chief
1st asst- White Helmet White Coat
2nd asst- White helmet Black gear
Captian- Red Helmet black gear
Ems Captian- Blue Helmet black gear
Ems Luet-blue helmet black gear
Fire Lt- Black Helmet with shield stating rank
Fire Police - Bright Yellow Jackets and orange hats with vests
FF- Black Helmet Black Gear
Newbies for the most part they will have old gear for awhile so there helmets will be yellow with black gear

i feel that what we have works great and there are many departments around us that do the same and some that are different
most fire department line officers helmets are white,regular firefighters are black,red,yellow and of course the jr.firefighters, they wear orange helmets so they can be identified, EMS wore blue.
My dept. goes as follows

Chief and Deputy Cheif - White
Capts and Lts. - Red
Fire Fighters - Yellow
Juniors and Explorers- Black
My district is pretty similar considering we have 5 stations.
Cheif-White
Safety Officer-Blue
Firefighters-Yellow or black (pending the station, at 43-2 we have yellow)
Probation- (43-2) Yellow helmet w/ blue reflective stickers

The other stations have their own system but the main areas of command are covered
my dept we use white=chief/asst. chief red=capt yellow=lieu black=ff orange=safety off. blue=ems yes there should be a standard. that way there is no confusion

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