what do different colors of Fire helmets in your fire dept mean

in My station

White = chief, Deputy Chief, and Ass. Chief

Red = Captains

Blue = Lieutenants

Orange = Safety Officer

Black with green shield = sergeant

Black = just a firefighter

Yellow = Probies

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Permalink Reply by Katina L Phalen on July 5, 2012 at 4:25pm

White: Chief/Asst Chief

Red: Capt/Safety Officer

Black: Firefighters

we wear traditional helmets except the Probies they wear a turtle shell and it's black.

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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on July 7, 2012 at 9:19pm

Fire helmet colors have meaning? They are not just random? Who knew?

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Permalink Reply by capcityff on July 7, 2012 at 9:50pm

Aren't you a chief? You should know better than anyone that once that white helmet goes on, you lose all common sense. : )

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Permalink Reply by Bob on July 7, 2012 at 9:58pm

White = Chief

Red = Captain

Yellow = Engineer and Firefighter

This is pretty standard for Cal Fire.

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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on July 8, 2012 at 10:14am

Don't white helmets make the wearer infallable, omniscient, and omnipresent? :-)

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Permalink Reply by Jessie Pollard on July 12, 2012 at 12:13pm

Underwood-Petersville Volunteer Fire Department, Florence, Alabama

White: Chief & Assistant Chiefs

Black: Captains

Red: Lieutenants

Yellow: Firefighters

Orange: "Probie" Firefighters

Lime Green: Explorers/Jr. Firefighters

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Permalink Reply by Kirk D. Baughman on July 13, 2012 at 10:33am

the dept i'm with we have four colors. the white is the fire chief but our chief wears red all the time. our two asst. chief's wear red. the station officers wears red. our firefighters wear black and our exploriers wear yellow. so basic if you have a red hat your an officer on scene black is our fighters and yellow our exploriers, our exploriers can do very little as of firefighting. they can do overhaul, help with changing air bottles, get information, they help at the stations, our firefighters all wear black from rookie to driver to sr. firefighter.

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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on July 14, 2012 at 11:37pm

Updated from a very similar discussion herein 2008 and 2009...

Dull Black: been to a few fires, can't tell what color the helmet used to be
Shiny black: new helmet, hasn't been around much fire
Red: see "shiny black", a new helmet that belongs to a company officer
White: see "shiny black", belongs to a chief officer that has a new helmet and/or doesn't do many training burns
Pink: a chief officer's helmet that has been discolored by UV rays

Pink with "Fire Goddess" on the frontpiece - self explanatory
Amber: a chief officer's helmet that has been discolored by even more UV rays
Brown: a leather helmet worn by someone who can't find the black high-temp paint
Transparent: a helmet that has had the s*** beaten out of it
Camouflage: you can't see it, so you don't know what color it is
Infrared: invisible except to the thermal imaging camera operator
Ultraviolet: makes the wearer look like Elvis under a blacklight
Blue: a helmet that has gotten really cold during one of our occasional February cold snaps
Yellow: STRANGER DANGER - we don't issue that color
Green: helmet that is very envious of the dull black helmets
Gold: misplaced Notre Dame helmet found in Mick Mayer's locker

Black and white checkerboard - checker player, unless the checkerboard is rippled. In that case, it's Jimmy Johnson's helmet.
Brown and tan checkerboard - chess player
Yellow with black dimples - Sponge Bob Square Pants
White fur - polar bear
Orange and black irregular stripes - tiger
Black and white irregular stripes - zebra, except sometimes it's an albino tiger
Spongy green - moss lover
Brown with spongy dark brown underside - mushroom aficionado
Brown and hairy - someone who forgot to wear a helmet, or a cocoanut
Brown feathers with white feathers at the crown - bald eagle
Silver scales - fish lover
White with irregular black dots - Dalmatian
Dimpled red - raspberry
Dimpled black - blackberry
Mauve - could be a chief, could be a chaplain, could be a former vocalist with Celtic Woman
Taupe - unsure what it means
Cream - barista
Frothed milk - also a barista
Lace - grandmother
Bone - orthopedic surgeon
Tan – Cable TV journalist in Afghanistan
Black and lumpy - Someone on Santa's "Naughty" list
Turquoise - desert southwest jeweler
Scarlet - O'Hara
Crimson - Tide