A little Fire Trivia request

[n0doz]

So I was just looking at Eric's excellent 5280Fire site, when I started wondering about fire helmet colors. Denver uses black for engine personnel, white for chiefs, and red (I think) for truck cos. What about other assignments, like rescue? Do other depts go "color-coded" as well? Thanks!

 

[W2NJS]

Your color description is exactly what I've always thought of as the traditional setup for helmet colors.

 

[Spitfire8520]

I think Denver has "color-coded" their helmet shields, but the helmets themselves represent rank. Red shields represent a truck company and black for engines, but if the entire helmet is red, then it's probably an Officer of some kind.

Based on what I have seen, I believe that South Metro Captains and lower and Castle Rock Lieutenants and lower all have black helmets, but have different colored reflective tape on their helmets. Red reflective tape are for Captains and Lieutenants while yellow are for Firefighters. Any Chief (and Safety Officer in Castle Rock) have white helmets with yellow reflective tape,

Littleton has a similar set up except they have red helmets with yellow tape for Captains and red helmets with orange tape for Safety Officers. I don't know about their Lieutenants (unknown if the rank exists).

 

[Adenosine]

Thousand departments will do it all different ways. Zebras to acting tomato heads. What works is what works. One constant though, seems white is always Chief, clean white is the MAN.

 

[tcomm_specialist]

Our local department uses Yellow for Firefighters, Red for Captains and White for Chief Officers. Much like brevity codes it varies from department to department and there is no real standard.

 

[SCPD]

My ambulance/rescue service, we use blue for rescue. (rescue is separate from fire). On the fire side everybody is yellow except the chief

 

[Toneslider12]

Every department is a little different, but here's some of the local run down...

Denver -
Firefighters - Black Helmet with yellow trim
Engine FF's - Black writing on the front
Truck FF's - Red writing on the front
Rescue FF's - Blue Helmet front
HAMER FF's - Orange writing on the front

Liutenants & Captains - Red Helmet with yellow trim.
Liutenants - White helmet front
Captains - Red Helmet Front
Engine - Black writing
Truck - Red writing

Chief Officer - White helmet with yellow trim, white front with gold / black writing.


South Metro -
Incident Dispatchers - Black helmet with yellow trim / red front
Firefighers - Black helmet with yellow trim / probies wear a yellow front
Paramedics - Black helmet with yellow trim & two blue
Lieutenants - Black helmet with orange trim / red front
Captains - Black helmet with orange trim / white front
Chiefs - White helmet with with front, hand painted writing with name.

Velcro numbers on the front
Engine - black
Trucks - red
Medics - blue
Rescues - orange

Arvada is backwards from the normal... Every firefighter used to wear a red helmet so as a less expensive solution to marking Lt's and Captain's was to give them black helmets.

 

[rfburns]

Cairns had a standard for helmets and fronts at least 45 years ago, probably even before that. I presume that standard was heavily influenced by what was being used in the NYC area including northern New Jersey and the Boston area. If you go to their interactive site today, you can built your own front with just about anything you want.

I have a Bostonian helmet manufactured in 1962 with an orange front. It seems like colors haven't changed much over the last 50 years, but there sure are a lot of variations today.

Then there's wildland fire with a mostly whole different scheme.

MSA - Cairns Fronts Configuration Tool

Info on standard fronts here:


CairnsFireHelmetFronts/Standard-Fronts

 

[n0doz]

Thanks! Fascinating stuff.
I have a black MSA from the mid 70's that I got from the RMAFD when I was in EOD out there. No front, though.

 

[kc0kp]

Thanks! Fascinating stuff.
I have a black MSA from the mid 70's that I got from the RMAFD when I was in EOD out there. No front, though.

I have a black MSA as well. In those days, the name on the back for most was in red letters. Helmet colors (Denver) were:
Engine Black
Truck Red
Snorkel Green
Squad Yellow
Chief White
Chaplain White with a cross or star of David on front
Reserve Black with Blue Lettering
All had DFD on a white rocker decal on the front.

Denver Badges are also color coded.