Firefighter - EMT

Who said fire trucks had to be red?

Nearly everywhere in the world, from Sydney to São Paulo, from Canberra to Callao, fire engines are red. If you have a child, you would say “Look! A big red fire truck!”, pointing to one as it races by, sirens and horns blaring. But what if your local fire engine were blue? Or orange? Firefighter-EMT.com trawled thousands of Flickr images to bring you the best of each color of fire apparatus in the United States, along with some interesting ones.

Springwater Fire District in Livingston County, NY with their new Pierce 1500/1250 engine. Red, of course. But who said fire trucks had to be red?

All of Chicago’s fire departments have their trademark black and red colors. You can see Truck Company 3 (pictured above) responding to alarms in videos here and here.

This neon orange apparatus is from Clearwater’s fire and rescue unit in Florida. They have eight stations in a district of 42.5 square miles with a population of 133,000. If the goal of a fire apparatus is to attract attention, I think this one does a pretty darn good job.

This is a Seagrave unit from the Hawaiian Fire Department, which employs five battalions containing 44 fire stations. Over 1,100 firefighters cover an area of 37 square miles and a population of over 140,000. Close yellow contenders were Carson City, NV and Clark County, NV.

Miami-Dade Fire/Rescue, from Florida. The MDFR covers 28 municipalities in Florida, the sixth largest in the United States. According to the department website, they chose lime green as a color “so that units would stand out better in traffic”. You can view, in real-time, their dispatch information online here.

This green apparatus is from the Village of Thorton Fire Department in Illinois.

Goshen Volunteer Fire Company, from Goshen, Connecticut (and not the Goshen, NY, or the Goshen, PA).

Barberton Fire Department, Barberton, Ohio, the so-called Magic City. The local school’s colors are purple and white, as are many of the city’s themes, like the Purple Man, which is a common fixture in the town’s parades. A close purple runner-up was the city of Greenville, NC, home to East Carolina University (whose colors include purple).

The San Francisco Fire Department celebrated the Centennial Celebration of the 1906 Earthquake and Fire in 2006 with the purchase of these maroon-colored American LaFrance engines that replicate the colors of fire trucks back then.

A sleek black unit from Norfolk, MA.

It’s a bit confusing when there’s a Paris, TX, Paris, NY (Oneida County), Paris TN (Henry County), Paris WI (Kenosha County) and a Paris, ME (among many others), but this white horse comes from Maine. Close contenders were Fort Worth, TX andEdgewater, CO.

This is a 2005 E-One Pumper from Bryn Mawr, in Pennsylvania.

A very refreshing color scheme from Bermuda’s Fire & Rescue Service. Turns outthey’re hiring with a pay of $53,868—$63,502. For more information on the Bermuda Fire & Rescue Service, we’ve compiled a page.

Image credits, from top to bottom: Jeffrey Arnold, pdxmac, flstormchaser641, MR38,apparatusbuff, †JDAWG†, Kevin Czarzasty, OhioJ, Nicole Cho, Lou Angeli, Jim Mack, J-Bestman

Does your fire engine deserve to be here? Send us a link via email or point us where to look via our contact page.

Reader submission by Jake Kennedy, from Station 37, Sandy Township in DuBois, Pennsylvania.