Let’s Look Closely At The Fire Truck That Broke Down On My Street: Cold Start

Usually, I try to write the Cold Starts the night before, because then they’re all fresh and ready to go right at 8 am, which makes Peter, who does our story scheduling among other things, happy. But I’m not here to make Peter happy! I’m here to make you happy, and sometimes that means falling asleep even though I was going to try to write one of these. Occasionally, though, waiting for morning to start this yields some interesting Cold Start opportunities, like today when I spotted a local fire truck broken down just across my street. I don’t get to look at a fire truck and its internals all up close very often, so let’s look at this one! Together!

Right off the bat, I’m sure you noticed that the color isn’t exactly the fire truck traditional red; that’s because I live in a college town, and people here will paint anything that is incapable of getting away on its own Carolina blue.

It’s actually pretty fetching, looking, I think. I took this picture of the seal on the side and while I get the ladder and hydrant, I have no idea what the hell that statue in the central circle is supposed to be:

It looks kind of like a statue of Athena or Minerva or some goddess like that, but as far as I know, there is no such statue anywhere in town. Why is that there? And I know she’s holding a shield there, but it’s more fun if you think of it as a giant egg.

This truck is a Pierce, a pumper of some kind; I’m not familiar enough with fire trucks to be able to know what year it may be from; fire trucks tend to look quite consistent year-t0-year and are extremely well-maintained, so this thing could be from the 1990s as far as I can tell.

I love the way the tilt cabs look when opened, because it’s very easy to imagine the truck bowing respectfully or being engrossed in a book:

I’ve not had a chance to see a fire truck engine up close in a while, so this was a treat:

A huge diesel, as expected, and I think it may be a PACCAR MX-13 engine, though I’m not certain. It’s an inline-six, displacing a massive 12.9 liters, and weighs almost twice as much as my entire Nissan Pao does, at 2,600 pounds. It makes between 400-500 horsepower, roughly, and between 1,450 and 1,850 lb-ft of torque. It’s a beast.

Is that a thermal cozy thing over the exhaust pipe there? Is that to keep heat out of the cab?

Behind the engine you can see all of the pumping hardware; I wonder why plumbing on pump hardware is painted, but engines almost are never? Probably thermal reasons. These are pumping water, not hot exhaust, after all. It’s just interesting how different various mechanical systems look.

Fire trucks may be the best-maintained vehicles you’re likely to encounter, even if this one did break down. Look at those chrome panels and hose fittings gleam!

Time to talk lighting! I think it’s interesting that fire trucks tend to be some of the last holdouts to use sealed beams. Almost all the light units are sort of tacked on to the bodywork, not integrated, which makes replacement and upgrades very easy. Look at that fantastic LED-grid turn indicator, too!

And, I’ve always loved the bold utility of fire truck taillights, especially the turn indicators with the arrows. Maybe I’ll put those on my F-150? That would be fun. Also, note the little bit of kitchy style with those diamond-shaped rear reflectors and side markers.

That was satisfying, right? Remind me to thank Chance for bringing me a Cold Start idea right to my door! Oh, and if you’re wondering, the firefighters at the truck were happy to let me take pictures, in exchange for letting them take pics of the Changli.