Fire Engines Photos

This 1975 machine was built to carry a 15 meter wheeled ladder, hence the configuration with the rear mounted pump controls and plumbing installed in the recessed side panels behind the rear wheel arches. By the time of this photo seven years later London - and many other fire brigades - had replaced the old wheeled ladders (which were originally wood, then steel) with light alloy 13.5 meter ladders like the one in this photo. These needed to be carried around by fire crews, not wheeled into position.

Although much lighter, they were still quite a lot heavier than similar modern ladders are now, and were sometimes referred to rather accurately by their users as "gutbusters"...Other countries such as Denmark, France and Germany once operated quite a lot of wheeled wood ladders too, in lengths up to 18 metres, but they died out in these countries between the 1930s and 1960s, with only a handful still in use in France. They never seem to have caught on in the Americas, Orient or other European countries. Many British colonies and Commonwealth countries also operated them, as their fire service equipment was often modeled on British designs, but these ladders also fell out of use many years ago.

Added by Rob Johnson on 16 June 2022.

Some Japanese fire departments fit small wheels to the upper section of their longer and heavier extension ladders, although their box frame design already tends to reduce weight considerably compared to ladders used in most other countries.

These wheels can both facilitate running the ladder head up a wall and also the idea of onw firefighter trailing the ladder from the pump to the building wall, rather than having three or four crew members to carry it.

Added by Rob Johnson on 17 June 2022.

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