color of fire apparatus

should the color of fire apparatus be red or lime green? or does it matter? why or why not?

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Permalink Reply by firechief911 on January 14, 2009 at 8:25pm

do they make them other than red? when i think fire truck i see shiny red maybe a white top

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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on January 14, 2009 at 9:28pm

Here's a rainbow of apparatus paint schemes...

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Permalink Reply by Hugh on January 26, 2009 at 8:25am

I am from Irwin FD in Irwin, PA and we have BROCKWAY BLUE and Gold and White on all of our Apparatus. Hughie The 57 House GO STEELERS!!!!!!

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Permalink Reply by R Griffin on February 2, 2009 at 2:14pm

If you see something yellow with red fashing lights you have to stop right? Your driving test told you to...Do you see any red school buses? just playing LOL!!!!

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Permalink Reply by Billy B Casteel JR on February 3, 2009 at 1:45am

I have to say red the best

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Permalink Reply by NYFireengine on February 3, 2009 at 5:53am

I'm A Black over Red Guy...Like the Chicago Look....

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Permalink Reply by Joe Herdman on February 3, 2009 at 8:09am

While no one can argue that red is the traditional color of fire trucks let me state that I am a non-conformist!

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Permalink Reply by Matt Mason on February 4, 2009 at 10:13am

It should be left up to the dept. and their history because that is what people in there area are used to seeing, here is our dept. paint scheme.

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Permalink Reply by daniel s romanoff on February 4, 2009 at 10:16am

It really does not matter because DOT standards that are out today mandate high visiblity , should it be by proper lighting, shevroning , sign boards electronic.

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Permalink Reply by Jason Koontz on February 19, 2009 at 11:58am

Well, if you're looking for a historical answer, here ya' go. When Ben Franklin started the very first fire department (which was volunteer), he wanted the most noticable color he could find, but didn't have a lot of money. So white was chosen. From there it became tradition that all fire apparatus be white. When the first full time paid department was formed (Baltimore or New York, I think), they wanted to be distinguished from the local volunteer crews, so they picked a bright red color. The lime green, yellow, and blue colors all came about in the 60's and 70's because as the times changed, cities wanted to show they were forward thinking and breaking from the past, so began using science to dictate the colors of their apparatus. So depending on which university was closest would depend on which color you thought was the brightest and most noticable. So take your pick. As for me? I don't actually care. But I am a believer in "the curse of the yellow fire truck", although some of my favorite and strongest running rigs were a deep yellow. So as long as the department lets me drive it, I don't care about the color. I will admit, though, I think a bright red ladder truck rolling down the road lights blaring and siren wailing is sexy as hell!.