Category: Fire (General)

N977 FWU and P654 PWW are appliances attending a derelict house that is on fire in West Yorkshire.

V280 HBM This Vauxhall Astra is an fire officer’s car from Pontefract. It has a magnetically-attached blue light and siren unit on the roof.

NX53 AYW is a sister vehicle of ‘AYV’ above. It is an identical Volvo based at NYF&RS’s Malton station.

This Jaguar fire car is is a one-off donated and converted by Chris Coote Conversions of Scunthorpe for the Cadwell Park motor racing circuit. It is fitted with a blue light bar and repeater blue lights behind the grille. The amber beacons are used when the vehicle is on circuit in a non-emergency capacity.



The Jaguar can be manned by two people but is normally solo-crewed as the operators are volunteers.



The fire fighting equipment consists of four portable extinguishers, two “blue” powder ones and two “white” foam. It is normal practice at racing circuits to kill the fire quickly with the powder extinguisher and, if necessary cool the area down using the foam. Consequently once the rear doors are opened the first extinguisher to hand is always the “blue”. A large capacity foam extinguisher is situated in the vehicle. This has to be pressurised before use and is discharged via a hose and nozzle. Once the tank is pressurised it must be discharged the same day so it isn’t pressurised unless essential.

YD52 TWW NYF&RS’s Bronto Skylift appliance in use at a training exercise. Notice how it has leveled itself on sloping cobbles.



The crew train in using the appliance for river rescue work, surprising passing mariners with its reach.

YX03 FVL An 03 registration Scania fire appliance from Humberside Fire Brigade.

YX03 FVN An almost identical vehicle that is being used for driver training.



The rear view, showing the ‘L’ plate and roof equipment arrangement.

N823 WYP A NYF&RS breathing apparatus training unit sitting on the back of a flat bed fire engine used for driver training.

A T&WMFB flat bed truck appliance. Here it is loaded with a demountable iron lung. If you collect the other three in the series can they be put together to make the logo?

B919 KWM This photograph shows a Merseyside Fire Brigade Dennis Fire Engine responding to a fire in a Refuse Wagon. It was taken on Scotland Road, Liverpool, during the early 1990’s.

Y733 HYG A Landrover Defender 110 from NYF&RS. It is an unusual design, having a removable white roof to make it into a pick-up style vehicle.



The front and side view of the same Landrover.

T307 FUA A Vauxhall Frontera from NYF&RS. Although sponsorship has become almost essential for many brigades today, it cannot be denied that the resultant livery on this car is messy and hotch-potch.



The rear view. Notice that the blue lights are mounted on the roof rails so the car will have fewer holes in it when it comes to be sold on.

NV51 YJC This Peugeot 306 estate is a fire car belonging to NYF&R. It has a double blue roof light bar with ‘FIRE’ written over the light. The inset shows the front view of the blue lights, also with writing over them. There are also two small repeater blue lights mounted below the front bumper. The website on the rear screen is the official site of NYF&R.

NK51 OTJ is a 2002 addition to Durham & Darlington Fire and Rescue Brigade. It is a Dennis SFD222ML / Emergency One appliance based at the High Handenhold station. It’s sister is NK51 OTG and is an identical appliance based at the Peterlee station.

YJ51 DZC A NYF&R 2002 Landrover Defender. Notice the minimalist blue lights.



The side view of the same vehicle. Notice the maximum water line just below the door sill.

G429 KBO York’s turntable ladders. This vehicle was replaced with a larger vehicle in Spring 2002.



A close-up of the front of York’s turntable ladders.

Here we see a NYF&R engine and crew practicing extrications on an old white van.

A London Fire Service Volvo FL6 appliance at the Biggin Hill Airshow in 2001. The emergency crews unfortunately had a busy weekend with two fatal crashes.

Here is an overview of the London Fire Brigade workshops at Lambeth.

A NYF&R Peugeot van with a trailer of equipment for fire prevention training, including extinguishers and a chip-pan-fire simulation.

P794 CHN A P-reg Volvo FL6 NYF&R decontamination unit, based at the Selby station. The decontamination portacabin is demountable.

YD52 TWW Here is a photograph of NYF&R’s Bronto Skylift. This ‘first’ is a very low vehicle, designed to fit into older fire stations and driven under low bridges. It cost £320,000 and is being used for training before being permanently stationed at York in 2003.



The rear of the above appliance. Fire engines have got lots of computerised equipment on board today, as seen behind the hatch. Near the top of the picture are the four wooden rests used to level the ground under the stabilisers.



A close up of one of the controls under the flap. The display is showing the safe operating limits of the boom (as detected by the computer) as well as the engine’s manning and other variables.

A rare sight is this ‘Thompsons’ company fire engine. For health and safety, many large companies run their own mini fire service. This ex-airport tender was spotted on a large construction site in Gateshead.

B537 GWB Here we see a B registration South Yorkshire fire appliance. It is a privately owned example and is not in service.

T827 JKH A T plate Humberside Fire Brigade Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 412D. This van is used for engineering support and is fitted with a amber flashing light bar with the working ‘fire’.

G73 NAG A side shot of a G registration Dennis appliance. This is one of five identical vehicles that were bought in 1989. It seems to be suffering from the firefighters request for a pay rise, being covered in a number of yellow ‘Y’ support stickers.



The front / side view, showing the lighting and livery layout.

R512 MPY is one of a pair of foam / water carrying appliances bought by NYF&RS in 1998. The identical sister vehicle is R513 MPY. They are Volvo FL6.18 trucks with specialist touches including massive tanks and silver grilles and bumpers.



The side view, showing the petrol-tanker style bodywork supplied by Massey Tankers. A fixed ladder is on the nearside to allow access to the top of the tank.



The rear view. The water level meter can be seen alongside a locker and the blue warning lamps. This appliance often travels long distances to incidents and is sometimes on the run empty. This means that it can get about far faster and then use its powerful vacuum pump at an incident to fill up.

NX03 JZL is a Volvo fire appliance based at Tadcater, North Yorkshire. It is a rescue unit built by Excalibur Specialist Vehicles and was new in April 2003.



The side view of the same engine, showing the lack of roof mounted ladders and large amount of lockers. This engine carries a small dinghy (oar-powered) for use on standing water.

WF52 XVP A North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service 52-plate Volkswagen Golf estate fire car. This VW is fitted with a roof blue light and two strobe repeaters below the registration plate, as well as a siren.

A 1998 South Yorkshire Mercedes-Benz 1124F rescue pump in Sheffield.