Fire Engines. Part-One.

Bonfires.

In a few days time, the emergency services will be stretched to their limit dealing with bonfire night and the madness of some people. Here in Wales the Fire Brigade has to deal with regular arsonists every dry period, lighting gorse fires.

But generally Halloween and Guy Fawkes night 31st October and the 5th November are the big nights. The need for a fire truck has been around probably ever since man could carry water on a cart? But it is really only in the last 200 years that some type of what we term 'Fire Engines have been developed to deal with house fires.

In the United States they are known as ladders, because they had to deal with tenement fires and later the early 19th Century sky scrapers. The first horse drawn tankers took full advantage of water pumping systems and were able to cope, despite being very limited. it was not until the 1920's that the first motorised trucks were designed as we see them today.