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.

Tugboats. Part-One.

Sea Haulage.

There is quite a lot more to the humble tugboat than meets the eye! Haulage is big business on land, in the air and so it is also at sea. Tugboats have a great expanding history to them from their first introduction, as a ship type in 1830 to the present day.

With the introduction of this seaborne assistant no major changes were made for the first seventy years of service in the British Isles. But over the last 110 years much has changed to the various new classes and their roles, which now include search and rescue, floating fire engines and a few newer type oil rig towing and recovery roles.