Fire Engines Photos

How sad, to see a great fire engine reduced to pumping human waste!

Added by Tiger on 07 June 2013.

I was waiting to see a green New Zealand fire truck! Its the only colour missing on their modern red/blue/white/orange and yellow multi-striped units, which have "progressed" a long way from the simple but elegant red and white which used to be considered enough to make fire service units sufficiently distinctive - and still look like fire trucks!

Added by Rob Johnson on 07 June 2013.

I view this differently, I see it as a testament to the durability and evidence of what was possibly the most outstanding manufacturer of fire fighting machines the world has ever seen, , , ,

Added by Pav on 10 June 2013.

Dennis produced some good trucks, but from the 1970s the firm was doomed by two inevitable problems. The UK market for fire trucks was just too small to support a firm with a primary focus on building custom chassis - even in the US market, which is about seven times larger, most of the custom manufacturers who were around thirty years ago have disappeared.

Second, Dennis exported very few trucks, with only a handful going into Europe and none to the US, Canada or South America. This was because they could not afford to build any service or parts networks in these places, and also because they made no meaningful effort to offer locally-adapted specifications. They simply could not compete with the likes of MAN, Mercedes and IVECO-Magirus, nor Volvo and Scania. Virtually every country outside the UK and US/Canada bought only fire trucks on commercial chassis - usually cheaper to buy, easier to service and repair, and worth more at the time of disposal, as they could revert more easily to other roles after being retired.

I was interviewed for the position of Managing Director of Dennis shortly after it was bought by Hestair, and even then it was obvious to me that their business model just was not sustainable. So I moved to the US and bought some car dealerships.

Added by Rob Johnson on 10 June 2013.

Hi David! Why don´t they buy one of the Watercarriers with the round tanks from UK, and repaint them green?That should be the best thing, both for the F&Rs in UK and the company.Big tank for pumping flooded drains and sewers!

Anders F. Sweden.

Added by Anders Fallström on 30 July 2014.

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