Fire Apparatus - Design and Construction

Design and Construction

Many fire appliances around the world are based on standard truck or lorry models, which are upgraded to the specifications required by the purchasing department. In the United States, a majority of fire trucks are specially designed from the chassis to the cab and body. This has led to the use of the term custom fire truck, as opposed to a commercial chassis and cab.

A fire appliance may undergo modifications such as adjustments for higher durability, removal of any speed limiter, and adjustments for long periods of idling at a higher temperature. This may be accomplished by heavy duty suspensions, brakes, tires, alternator, transmission and cooling systems. It is also usual to upgrade the capacity of the electrical system to accommodate additional electrical and electronic equipment.

Fire appliances have audible and visual warnings, to protect themselves from traffic, and make themselves visible to other units at an incident.

In many countries, use of the audible and visual warnings affords the driver a degree of exemption from road traffic laws (such as the right to exceed speed limits, treat red stop lights as give way etc.) and may also infer a duty on other motorists to move out of the direction of passage of the fire vehicle (or face possible prosecution).