It seems as if many fire departments have turned away from the traditional collor of RED.
Today you see Lime Green, White, Blue, Orange, Yellow and I can go on, and on. Whenever you think of a fire truck, shouldn't it be RED. What has happened to our traditional RED fire trucks, and why are departments going to other collors?
Our dept. has had Yellow since 1971, when the then administration ordered and recieved a new engine from Welch. We have managed to get away from the safety yellow, and now have chrome yellow which looks pretty good I think. Also, when we have a multi agency event, it's nice to have equipment color coded. Our neighbors to the west have white, and neighbors to the east have traditional red.
I have been on three departments. The first one was all red. The second one had "flirted" with the saftey yellow on the early 1980's, but has changed back to all red. Now, my third department is a shade of yellow that is not quite canary yellow. All three departments are in the same county. Our trucks stand out because they are not red. And, from what I understand, the trucks have ALWAYS been this color. That would mean it is this departments TRADITIONAL color. And, i don't think that the color of the truck dictates it's ability to do the job. Just my opinion on that one!!!
However what little boy or girls says that they dreamed of driving in the big yellow, white, blue, green or polka dotted engine? Its always RED!!!! LOL
Seriously. It doesnt matter, mine are red, my first department was school bus yellow, my next was white, and beleive me...NOBODY ever complains of the color when we show up to help!!!! It is the people and what we do....not the color of our engine, truck or ambulance!