Why Are Fire Trucks Shiney?

I know I shouldn't have to post this,but the question has been posed to me a few times by the public an members of Emergency Services alike.I always thought,and as I was told when younger it was"SO YOU CAN SEE YOURSELF IN THEM."A nice recruitment tie in there,and just what a little boy(or girl)wants to hear/do.But I feel it represents Pride,Honor,Duty,Care,And A Clean Image to the pubic.Especially since there's been a lot of bad publicity lately all over the place.So,what reason where you given/do you/would you give as an answer to this question?

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Permalink Reply by Shareef Abdu Nur on February 18, 2010 at 9:50pm

I have senior man at one of my departments that says, "A clean truck is a happy truck.." Now, at my other department, I try to teach the new guys some pride and some professionalism in having a clean piece.

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Permalink Reply by Todd on February 18, 2010 at 11:11pm

You can tell a lot about a department by the shape their apparatus is in just sitting in the bay.

I look at keeping the apparatus clean and shiny as just an extension of taking the absolute best care you can of something that lives depend on. Stations/Departments (depending on how you are set up) with dirty apparatus are usually also the ones with apparatus that always seems to be in the shop. Even poor rural departments with older apparatus that's seen it's better days seem to have better mechanical luck when the members take enough pride in keeping their apparatus as clean as they can.

Now, I'm not saying that you have to keep your apparatus in show room condition....these beasts are made to work and when you work you are going to get dents and dings. But you show me a department that always has a bay full of trucks with sand in the floorboard and dirt in the wheel wells and I'll show you a department that lacks a lot of pride, and always seem to be breaking something.

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Permalink Reply by Loyd Dittfurth on February 19, 2010 at 12:18am

I always thought it was to show the public that we take care of the things there tax money buys.

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Permalink Reply by Doug on February 19, 2010 at 12:36am

The first ding, dent, scratch or nick is always the toughest and saddest one :(

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Permalink Reply by lutan1 on February 19, 2010 at 1:09am

Why would this type of thing give you diarrhea? You need to settle down and not get upset to the point where you loose you bowels over it Lutan... LOL...
Damn it Mike- I just pissed my pants reading that!!!!! ;-)

Gotta do something about the pelvic floor exercises.....

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Permalink Reply by Tony P on February 19, 2010 at 3:25am

Such a deep and meaningful thread!

Try not being allowed to wash your trucks for about two years... Water restrictions due to drought - not good, who likes to drive around in a filthy car? I had a good way out. We have to wash our vehicle lights, our windows, our safety stripes, our blue and red lighrts. We have to for safety. We have to wash the pump panel - can't check it properly otherwise. One twenty letre drum of water to do that job and then stretch it out to do the rest of the truck. Not a fantastic wash, but a lot better than nothing!

CB? We love hearing visitors talk about 'fanny packs'... Did you find out the hard way?

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Permalink Reply by Tony P on February 20, 2010 at 6:09am

We didn't want to spend the money - currently trying to get enough together to build an extention on the shed... But problem is being solved! A 10,500 litre tank has just been installed :-)

We kept them looking quite good, but it's going to be nice to gack to properly washed trucks soon.