The Invention and Evolution of the Fire Truck

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Timestamps:
Intro (00:00)
18th Century (00:30)
19th Century (03:09)
20th Century (04:33)
Today (06:20)
Outro (10:02)

Sources:

Videos Used (in order of appearance):

[Brick_Soup]

An interesting fact about fire trucks that you missed is that fire trucks with a ladder are usually referred to as "trucks" and fire trucks without ladders are usually referred to as "engines".

[rsookchand]

Every time I see a fire truck a deep childhood based nostalgia gets excited

[joe_lemmons]

The one thing I would add is a section on squads/rescues. Long story short they're trucks that cut back on firefighting capability in order to carry more specialized rescue tools. Short story long is that they may or may not have a pump & water tank and they prioritize cabinet space in order to carry all the tools a regular engine wouldn't. Where a regular engine might only carry a few hydraulic tools and maybe a car crash kit, squads have all the bells & whistles: rescue airbags, struts & ratchet straps, maybe some specialized stuff like water rescue equipment or grain bin tubes, etc.

[MikeV]

It was easy to tell that many of the airport firetrucks featured in the video were not American, because they were red. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration requires that firetrucks for airport use be painted in the light-green color called "national safety yellow" in federalese. Some cities have adopted the color for their entire fire departments, so that outside equipment can also serve the airport.

[TickoGrey]

Yay fire trucks! I love fire trucks.

Could you make a Trolleybus video? I'd really appreciate that

[antiquatedideas]

I love it! Let's get a specialized truck series! Something super interesting to me are the various types of military trucks. I love the 70s/80s blocky utilitarian ones the most, like the Austrian Steyr-Puch that the G Wagon came from

[Diptera_Larvae]

Just sliding in here with some fact I heard on the 99 Percent Invisible podcast:

Fire engine sirens in 1912 reached about 96 decibels when measured 11 feet away.
In 1974, it reached 114 decibels at 11 feet away.
Current day sirens (2023) reached up to 123 decibels at about that same distance.

Every ten decibels is ten times the sound pressure to the ears and twice as loud in our experience of hearing it, so sirens are six times louder now than in 1912.

Thanks for the facts Roman Mars.

[FeatureHistory]

In Australian bush fire response (CFA personally) we practiced drive by spraying like mentioned in the brush trucks, but far less sophisticated than the clip used.

CFA tankers feature walking space (sometimes seats) around the tank in the back where crew will stand and man hoses. 2 people will be in the back spraying the fire front while the tanker drives.

[supercancer]

Loved the video mate. I've been a firefighter for the last 9 years in my hometown in rural Australia.
A quick tidbit is that our bushfire fighting trucks (or wildland as you call it) are on the contrary often much heavier than their urban counterparts as they have to carry more water so they can operate for longer and more isolated from a water source.
In addition they can spray while moving as they often have a second, smaller motor to run the pump, thus adding more weight, while urban trucks run on a PTO system.

Balancing weight and off-road capabilities is an often difficult juggle for truck designers so we have a litany of smaller, lighter, shorter wheelbased trucks designed to get up mountain goat tracks.

Also an interesting feature that bush trucks often have protection systems like a cab and wheel protection sprinkler system and deployable heat shields incase a fire overruns you (hopefully you won't ever need it though).

Lastly I've never understood why American fire trucks look so unique and archaic. Ours and European trucks are effectively a commercial brand cab and chassis with a tank ladder and pump on the back.

Thanks for the video mate. Cool topic

[EnjoyFirefighting]

Just because an Engine doesn't have a mounted aerial ladder, doesn't mean that it has no ladder on board or that the range of equipment is very basic. Many Engines feature an extensive range of equipment besides the pump and tank
"a boom attached to a house" ... I kind of believe it's rather a hose attached to a boom
8:09 only in North America it takes a seperate crew member to steer the rear axle, while pretty much ANY other country has figured out how it works with automatic rear-wheel steering or even with all-wheel steering; Upon that the massive long Tiller Trucks still have only a 100 ft ladder, not any taller than rather short trucks with an equally tall ladder

[jordanspencer]

I thought I was going crazy at first when I saw the tiller truck moving diagonally

[prekatori]

Would love a follow up with a comparison for (airport) fire trucks

[flyingbanana]

Surprised heavy rescue apparatus wasn't included. They're very common in major US cities, and even small towns have heavy rescues. Heavy rescues can carry a lot more equipment, unlike other fire apparatus, and this equipment is used for special applications like extrications, hazardous materials, trench rescues, etc.

[Alexrocksdude_]

Tiller truck pov videos are always very interesting to watch

[Truckngirl]

You do this well. I admire your research. You put a great effort in your script and your voice is broadcast quality. I'm looking forward to your next video.

[mr_Mmph]

To me the coolest type will always be fire-cranes, simply because they're both a fire engine and a mobile crane, the two coolest vehicles in one

[_Cyber-]

This truck is the reason a lot of people don’t die

[CocoTreb]

Hey man, I just wanted to say I really enjoy your videos! I never had any appreciation for trucking until I became subscribed to your channel. Keep up your amazing content!

[Grif]

Here's more list of fire trucks: Rescue Units. As the name suggest, Rescue Unit are specialized on doing Rescue related stuffs and sometimes they have a small crane probably to lift flipped cars and more. Squad units are pickup trucks that are modified to bring tools these units are small so they can navigate tight areas easily. HAZMAT unit are specialized to do hazardous materials related stuffs. Fire command vehicle AKA Battalion Vehicle are vehicles used by a senior officer of a fire dept to respond to a fire incidents. Mobile Command Center (My favorite) are massive vehicle used as a mobile base and communication center, they often stationed near crisis center or natural disaster. Mobile Clinic are vehicle used for transporting mass casualties. SCBA supplier units are used for a long fire calls and resupplies the firefighters' SCBAs, sometimes they also have Light tower to lit up the scene. And there are more fire apparatus but I am so tired from writing this so yeah that's all

[belyear]

I’m a under employed school bus driver, thanks for the shout out. We as a society NEED to give bus drivers more respect. It’s a difficult job.