Around here every department has a different color helmet for thier firefighters. We have white for chief and asst. chief. Red for captain and leuitenants. And yellow for everyone else. Saftey officer is blue. But the neighbors have black, and the officers on other are different colors. This makes it hard for all of us to decifer officers from firemen. If we went to one helmet color for everyone it would make it easier for us to tell.
At Cove Creek in NC we use 5 different colors
White- Chief & Asst Chief
Red- Captain, 1st & 2nd Leiutentant
Black- Firefighters
Yellow- Probationary & Juniors
Blue- First Responders
If you are a firefighter/first responder then you wear your fire helment on MVA's
I think that is good idea with the colors for officers. I dont like the idea that each fire dept has different colors. My dept. has all black helmets for ff,s and colors for offices. Like white is for chiefs, red is for captains and yellow is for Lt,s.
Then helmet badges have further distinctions. A Probie starts with a pumpkin helmet and a shield that says Probationary FF. When they become Mid-pack qualified they recieve their helmet badge with dept. number. Safety officers have Black helmets with distinctive white shield that state Safety Officer. Then highest former rank is on your helmet badge IE Ex-Chief, Ex-Captain.....
Permalink Reply by Rich on September 11, 2007 at 8:08am
The Chiefs (Chief, Deputy & Assistant) have white, the Captain & Lieutenant have Red. Everyone else has black. EMS will usually have light blue. Past Chiefs/Ex-Chiefs will have gold on their shield and insignia on the sides but still wear black helmets.
My paid department and volly department are pretty much the same:
Junior fire fighters- Black with black front and orange tetrahedrans
fire fighter- Black with black front and white tetrahedrans
Engineer- Black with red front and white tetrahedrans
Lieutenant- Red with white front and white tetrahedrans
Volly Captains- Red with black front and white tetrahedrans.
Paid Captains and Chiefs- White with white front and white tetrahedrans
in my department chief and asst. are white. captains are red, leuitenants are yellow, firefighters are black, and cadets are orange. our nieghbors to the north chiefs white, capt. and lt. are black and firefighters and cadets are yellow. all this color mades it very hard when we are on calls toghter. if we had one common color system i think it would not be as big as a problem as it is.
In my department Chief and Asst Chief are white Capt. Lt. are red Interior FF are black Safety blue all others are yellow. But not other towns around us they are all different
Chief's: white
Fire Capt & LT:yellow
F/F:red
Rescue Only(EMS):blue
Rescue Capt. & LT:red or blue(depends if your rescue only or a F/F)
Recruit:orange
The department issues the modern style but if you want a traditional style you have to buy it your self. And nobody cares if you put stickers on it or not.
to all that has replied thank you. sounds like most of you have some kind of system for identifying all your firemen. which is what i would like to see around here
The Chief and Assts have white, firematic officers have golden yellow cairns style helmets, ems officers have blue, regular ff's have black and probies have yellow smooth style
in germany we have
- a commander. he is the boss from the fire department
- a section leader. he is the boss from two platoons (one platoon have 18 persons)
- a platoon leader. he is the boss from two groups (one group have 9 persons)
- a group leader. he is the boss from one group or a relay ( one relay have 6 persons)
- a respiratory protection leader. he is the boss from all respiratory protection carrier
- a ABC leader. he is the boss from the ABC decontamination group
all persons have a white helmet in germany!!!
the commander have a touch on the helmet. here a picture:
the section leader have a narrow rubber band in red on the helmet. here a picture:
or/and a white waistcoat with a label "section leader". here a picture:
the platoon leader have a broad rubber band in black on the helmet. here a picture:
or/and a red waistcoat with a label "platoon leader". here a picture:
the group leader have a narrow rubber band in black on the helmet. here a picture:
or/and a blue waistcoat with a label "group leader". here a picture:
the respiratory protection leader have a wiht/black waistcoat with a label "respiratory protection leader". here a picture:
the ABC leader have a green waistcoat with a label "ABC leader". here a picture: