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Fire Trucks are Red!
Many believe that a fire truck should be RED.
Why?
Why is red the magic color?
How was it chosen as the color of the fire service?
Are there colors out there that have been proven to be more visible?
Why?
Why is red the magic color?
How was it chosen as the color of the fire service?
Are there colors out there that have been proven to be more visible?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by mike angle on
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WHILE THE TRADITIONAL COLOR FOR FIRE TRUCKS IS RED RECENT STUDIES HAVE SHOWN THAT THE THE EMERGENCY YELLOW OR GREEN IS THE MOST VISIBLE COLOR AVAILIBLE OUR TRUCKS ARE EMERGENCY GREEN AND WE LOVE IT HOWEVER I AM EMPLOYED FULLTIME BY A HOSPITAL BASED EMS SERVICE AND WE WILL BE CHANGING FROM A HUNTER GREEN&WHITE TO EMERGENCY GREEN WITH THE EUROPEAN MARKINGS ON THE BACK
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Permalink Reply by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on
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Higher visibility so that John Q can ignore you more quickly for a longer period of time.
Studies have proven that especially at night, traditional red creates shadows around the truck, unless you have it lit up like a Christmas tree.
I think it's more about the reflective striping and lights than it is about color.
IMHO.
TCSS.
Art
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Permalink Reply by Eric on
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I have to agree with spanner122's post back on Jan 8th. Those are also the two most popular explainations that I've heard as well. As for modern times, I'd have to say that it is because firefighters tend to be very traditional people. With apparatus traditionally being red, I guess that could explain it.
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Found out today that the special iridescent red that we want for the new truck is an $8000 option.
So I said, "OK, what will the standard red with Chevron striping cost?" The striping is about $3500!
So, given the two, what would you do?
TCSS.
Art
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Permalink Reply by T.J. on
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What would I do?................................. I'd go with this, LOL:)
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Permalink Reply by Trainer on
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Art;
If you show up tonight, I have what should be a less expensive option to show you. The thing that gets me is 8 grand to paint just the cab, and a standard cab at that. If you get to the point where the papers need signing, I think some negotiating could occur. I believe I pointed this out in an email this morning to the man in charge, and reminded him who got us started on this color anyways.
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Contract will be at the Dec.1st meeting.
List of options, too.
I don't negotiate.
If I don't get their best price the first time, I take my business elsewhere.
We don't have time to dance on this.
We have bought 3 trucks from them in the last 20 years. I know several who have bought that many in the last year alone.
We're a good customer, but we're not a BIG customer.
And I'm not twisting the guts out of a friendship just to get 50 bucks off of a paint job.
TCSS.
Art
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Permalink Reply by Sheri Caelwaerts on
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Ok, I just came from a department that had red for the newer rigs, lime green for all the older rigs. Having driven them all I must say this...the color didn't have a damned thing with how long the moron in front of me saw/heard the truck...they ignored it equally. The fun part was hitting the air horn untill they pulled over and waving when they finally realized they had been passed by a female!!! Now, I have moved and belong to a department that has canary yellow trucks. That's right...canary yellow. No one else in the upper part of Wisconsin has it. {For the East & West coast war, we in the Midwest will gladly sit here and put out the fires while ya'all are busy peeing in the wind about who's better....;)} But I will always take great pride in this fact...no matter which color truck I'm either driving or riding in to the dance...I love seeing the look on most men's faces when a woman jumps out and has more balls than they have to do the job!!!
Go Yellow!!!!
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Permalink Reply by Jenny Holderby on
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Is there a particular reason you want THAT paint? My brother is a body man, he does autobody work & is a whiz in applying paint, stripes or anything else. I have helped him take decals off trucks & put others on all kinds of fire apparatus. Most of the protective properties in the finish on any vehicle are actually not in the color but in the clear coat or other finishes applied after the paint has been sprayed. ANY TYPE of paint & treatments is expensive but $8,000 seems a bit MUCH I agree.
I'm not sure that particular type of paint is in the NFPA recommendations. :)
What kind of truck are you looking at? The trucks in our station are mostly Pierce RED with the NFPA stripping. The new rescue/pumper is "almost" the same shade of red but its a Sutphen so it isn't the same color. It has a black roof & black stripes. :( I wanted white to match the other vehicles but . . . I lost.
These days fire trucks are all different colors. I just happen to LIKE red & white.
Good luck,
Jen
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Damnthing, Art is looking for information. If you don't care what color fire trucks are etc. that's fine, don't read these discussions.
If you want to start a discussion on east coast vs west coast go for it.
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{For the East & West coast war, we in the Midwest will gladly sit here and put out the fires while ya'all are busy peeing in the wind about who's better....;)} But I will always take great pride in this fact...no matter which color truck I'm either driving or riding in to the dance...I love seeing the look on most men's faces when a woman jumps out and has more balls than they have to do the job!!!
Yeah Sheri, couldn't have put it better myself!! MIDWEST FFF ROCK!
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That's the color we got,RAL3024, and "Fluorescent red" is the proper name, but most who see it call it orange. It does fade bad, but our bay doors face north and have very little windows. Our first truck painted this way is an 89, still looks good today, and for you naysayers, it does standout more than any paint I have ever seen, gives you a headache if you wash it in the sun. We bought a used heavy rescue a couple of years back; it was going to take 30 grand to paint it. We think we have come up with an alternate base/clear paint that hopefully won’t break the bank.
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