SA Firefighter
Equipment => All Equipment discussion => Topic started by: junior on October 02, 2005, 10:24:33 PM
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do you think we should keep the trucks white or join the rest of Australia (CFA,NSWRFS,QldRFS Etc)and go red ????
What are you thoughts ???
i reckon red would work better for on-road jobs, white trucks in white smoke seems a little unusual but been to many fires and striketeams and it isn't a problem either.
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I think red would be a great idea...keeps us in line with most of the country, enables better purchase power with MFS (Is there really a cost saving in buying red trucks (white is a normally produced colour, red may not be...)), makes it easier to borrow spare pumpers across services without all the "ooh...they wanna be Mets" comments, easier public recognition (after all, aren't all fire engines red? :wink:). But how do you introduce red trucks now when the existing fleet is already white? :|
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We have had red trucks years ago and then changed to white.
Having seen both on the road and through smoke I think White is better. ACT have a lime green colour and I believe Tasmania are heading that way. WA Rurals have white, Qld Rurals have yellow and NT rural I think have mix of white and yellow. One the open road there is no doubt that white stands out more at a distance and in all levels of light, likewise in smoke there is no doubt that white stands out more.
I guess it's all a matter of time - we have had yellow or colours close to now for years in our PPE(following from khaki) and now we are seeing allot of other services go to yellow or similar PPE - maybe they too will soon change truck colours.
Interesting to note on a number of sites from across Australia that a proportion of the new appliances are coming our with both red and white combinations 8-) - could be because of the cost of coloured (red) appliances, so cut down spray painting costs and alike or due to the increased safety that white offers!
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I read a report a few years ago from the USA about the safest colour of fire appliance ( they have lots of colours in the USA)
The best was the yellow/lime green The only problem was that the public thought they looked like school buses. Not a problem here
White was second – Problem in areas with snow and in white smoke
Red was the most recognised as a fire appliance but had problems at night and when it was dark.
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We will never get Red trucks.
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I think that there is nothing wrong with white trucks, it makes the CFS unique compared to everyone else, so therefore we know which trucks are ours. I dont think that CFS will ever go to red trucks and personally I prefer white. I think it looks alot better!!!
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While the lighter colours are more visible its a fact that more people are taught as kids that firetrucks are red, so its only natural for them to expect red fire trucks coming down the road. We have no end of trouble getting through traffic because nobody wants to give way to the council!!
A number of stations in America had there appliances painted lime green in the 70's but as has been mentioned, people don't associate fire trucks with any other colour than red, the more important thing is the lights and sirens fitted. Thankfully CFS are now fitting some decent lights to the trucks, but some of the older trucks are barely noticable going down the road.
Its just a fact of life, firetrucks are meant to be RED.
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As stated above a lot of international and local research has been carried out into the visible presence of vehicles on the road and white is a highly visible colour, where red is a poorly visible colour. This related to spectrum light cancelling out opposite colours is defferent light (difficult physic in there somewhere!)
There's more chance of the MFS using White appliances than the CFS going to red! I love to see what the UFU says about that!
The MFS's Izusu Fleet which is out in the country had to be sprayed red as when they purchased those cab/chassis they where only available in white .
A number of county fire services in the UK are changing there appliance colour to a fluro yellow/green or white.
It's an easy one for me though, regardless of the colour of type of appliance, I'd still rock up!
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I like both red and white but would have to say that CFS does stand out with the white appliances if we are going to join the rest of services then we will need to change helmets(captains have red one's and so on) If you talk to people at SEM they say its easy and cheaper to work on a white fire truck as that is how the coome from the supplier white and then thay paint them....
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I like both red and white but would have to say that CFS does stand out with the white appliances if we are going to join the rest of services then we will need to change helmets(captains have red one's and so on) If you talk to people at SEM they say its easy and cheaper to work on a white fire truck as that is how the coome from the supplier white and then thay paint them....
We wouldn't need to change out helmets. MFS have an identical rank structure, regarding their helmets to us. Up to Station officer level.
MFS
Fire Fighter = White helmet = CFS F/F
Senior F/F = White helmet, Red stripe = CFS SF/F
Station officer = Yellow helmet, Redstripe = CFS Captain
All we have differently is a Lt. Which is a Yellow Helmet. That used to be the MFS SUB Station officer rank. Which does not exist now.
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Go you big red fire engine...
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Why not be different and get black fire engines :D
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While the lighter colours are more visible its a fact that more people are taught as kids that firetrucks are red, so its only natural for them to expect red fire trucks coming down the road. We have no end of trouble getting through traffic because nobody wants to give way to the council!!
Interesting allot of country schools are teaching their children fire trucks are white. Our local schools (hills face zone) only paints white trucks when they visit and bring their art work to the station. Its a matter of culture. Also our community see white trucks everywhere - each week on the raod for training, numerous times a week when responding and also at our Groups numerous PR events - they know when they go down the hill they might see a red truck, but they know they have white trucks!
As for being a council truck when responding - mmm thats a local population problem, what do they think white police cars are - taxi's and white ambulances - plumbers vans???? It's just a conviniant excuss for the public to not move.
As for standing out, when on strike teams interstate it was interesting to get the feedback of other services (both career and volunteer) who loved our white trucks, the fact they stood out and were alot more noticable.
Then if we look at traditions it was firemen - now it's fire fighters and the services are better for it, so tradition has it's place but should not stand in the way of research and technology and our safety.
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Thats all very nice OZFIRE, but fire trucks are red!!
(don't get excited, my tongue is firmly planted in my cheek)
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MFS wannabes, get a real job...
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Fire trucks come in many colours,in tassie they have a few lime green ones,yellow in QLDRFS and in the CFA we used to have type one pumpers that where pink but it was really fluro red and boy did we get some funny look's rolling out the station to jobs from the public....
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MFS wannabes, get a real job...
wannabe's :?
we achieve our goals far and beyond the public expectations
as for mets , they do their part we do ours.
get a real job you say , well CFS members put in 24/7 and i as most have full time jobs i think your attitude is one of very few now days as we both work and train with MFS and besides a few dinosaurs the relationship between the two agency's is very good.
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mmmm...
well what that post was actually about junior was the colour of trucks and CFS vollies that just absoloutely WANNABE mfs... why else would they want red trucks??
i have a real fulltime job. and i also respond with a busy urban brigade. that has white trucks. lets stay differant, there is no need to "conform" to public ideals
besides; anyone that has been to a decent smoky fire, can quite plainly see that our trucks show up much better through smoke, or just purely in the dark, than red ones.
and yes, this is at jobs where a red one is sitting next to a white one.
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Fair call , red or white i dont think the victim of victims really care what the colour is :mrgreen: