After a Mutual Aid Fire the other night,I got to thinking that helmet colors on the fire ground should be standardized somehow.This after I made an Observation that a "Black Hat" was giving orders.I fallowed along of course,with him being odviously my senior firefighter.But as the night went on I glanced over at his helmet,and realized that the "rockers" on his helmet said,"ASST.CHIEF",an so did the back of his coat.I thought this was odd,since all the other Chiefs where wearing White helmets.And I also noticed other Officers & Us Crew wearing various colors.Mostly Yellow & Black.This was confusing.Our Fire District Helmet Colors are as fallows...
White-Chief (& Capt.until 1988) Yellow w/White Shield-Capt. Yellow w/Black Shield-Lieu. Blue-Company EMS Capt./Lt. Red w/ White Shield-Safety Officer Black-Firefighter Orange-Explorer Orange Hard Hat-Fire Police.
What are your Company's Helmet colors?,and Do you think there should be a Standard?
Update:Tiger Schmittendorf has let me know that there is NO STANDARD In The United States.But Still The Question Looms Should There Be?

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We are mostly black.The chiefs have the shields on the front that identify their rank.
Well Just to clear up some of what I meant was the reason for the different colors is to more easily identify who is what at a call.It's really helpful @ 2,3 and 4 in the morning.It makes it easier to see a Color than an Rank on a leather shield or a sticker.The reason being is some companies by me have all black,all red,all yellow,and yes 1 company has All SLIME-LIME Helmets.One Company had all White at one time also.
my companie has all black with white shields that say your rank unless your a chief then you get a white one explorers get yellow 1010's
There is an NFPA standard on helmet colors. I'm not sure what it is or what the colors are. I have an idea but I don't wanna give you false information. Our area utilizes white for officers, black or yellow for firefighters, red for exterior, and blue for EMS.
There was a pretty thorough discussion of this subject on another thread, a couple of months back. The short answer is: No. There may be an NFPA standard but not everyone follows it. Red in one department is the same as blue in another or orange somewhere else.
With having the helmet colors we have different color reflective trapiziods,Blue for Interior,Orange for Rookies,and A Small Reflective Star of Life For E.M.T.s. This goes for ALL Helmets.Plus the Blue Helmet(EMS Capt.) is only to be worn at Accident,Rescue & Any Other E.M.S. Related Calls.We also have the option of purchasing our own Qualification Triangles(Extrication,Exterior,Haz-Mat,etc.).
Generally,

White - Chief Officers
Red - Captain/LT
Blue - EMS/EMT's
Yellow - Probationary FF
Black - Structural FF

The Yellow and Black may be used depending on the Department, but in mine thats pretty much the order, but I have been on others where they are all black for FF or all yellow for FF...

I have seen some in New England area where certain companies would have a New Yorker style helmet in black, but the back half of the helmet would be painted different, red for instance.

Peace and Fair Journeys,
Wolfy
In my department all officers wear white helments, with there rank on the shield. FF's wear yellow and a few have black. Junior's or FF's without FF-1 wear Red. This makes it very easy for all !!
How was the eden fire last night???? As far as ours go firefighters have black 1010's, our Jr. officers have black with white shilds(ems have white shilds with blue lettering), and if you are qualified to drive our ladder truck you get a red leather N5A. By the way i dont have one of the plastic one i have an black leather N5A got it for graduation.
Although I think it would be excellent to have a national standard for helmet markings, the realist in me knows that it will never be followed. Our agency uses the following colors:

White traditional for all officers, Chief, AC, Capt - personalized leather shield with name and rank
Black tradtional for all Interior Qualified personnel - generic leather shield

Yellow for non-interior, Junior, probie - generic leather shield

Additionally any EMT or above has star of life stickers on each side.

Sully
Hi Tony, It is standardized here...Chiefs have White , Capt. & Lt. have yellow, Driver/Operator red, and Firefighter black....along with are the rockers stating position and whether they are EMT's, along with Star of Life on the rear. Have a great day and take care. Kenny France Lt/EMT, Vidalia FD, Vidalia-La
In my FD and my area, we use the yellow for the FF, red for the officer (Lt & Capt) blue for the Safety officer and white for the chief... we don't have black helmet and just few use black in the south of Québec, but i don't know why is yellow instead of black ? the shield are the same color of the helmet execpt the yellow, but some new helmet this year have a black shiel and i prefer this... (New black shield/ white helmet - chief, and a new black shield/ red helmet for the capt.)
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