Fire / Crash Tenders

Series I

88" Series I

Rover began to fit out vehicles themselves in the late 1940's, using bought in equipment from specialised companies to produce a standard fire tender.

Some vehicles were fitted with 40-gallon water tanks, and a pump powered via the PTO. More often vehicles were used in support roles for other vehicles, carrying supplies utilised as hose-carriers or serving as towing vehicles for trailer pumps. Pictured here you can see the bonnet of this 88" model been used to carry a hosepipe.

It was soon apparent that Rover did not understand the market and had not been prepared for the differing specifications that customers wanted. This lead to Carmichael's of Worcester been appointed in the mid 1950's as the approved vehicle converter because of their established expertise in the field of fire fighting. These and other companies were very successful and produced many versions of appliances.

Series II

Series II Firefly

Improvements to the Landrover's capabilities lead to developments in the Crash / Fire tender role. Better payload carrying enabled a better pump to become an integral part of the vehicle. Aviators quickly saw the potential for these vehicles utilising the off road abilities to get to a situation quickly, even the less accessible areas of an airfield.

Pictured here is a 1960 series II 109" Firefly Fire Tender, the vehicle's bodywork was converted by George Angus & Co. Ltd (now Angus Fire). It was supplied new to English Electric (which became part of British Aerospace), where it worked up until 1995 a tribute to the crew that maintained it and to the endurance of the Landrover itself.

Fire services continued to use Landrover's as support vehicles to carry equipment or fire fighters as well as dedicated pump vehicles.

Series IIa/III

TACR1 Series IIa/III

The TACR1 was supplied to all branches of the MOD, pictured here is a vehicle produced by Carmichael as used by the RAF Fire Service with the MOD matt green livery.

Due to the way the MOD operates its contract system a number of contractors would produce a vehicle to the same specifications. This leads to differing appearances across a range of vehicles that should be the same; this is most notable with the TACR2.

The differences between a Series IIa and a Series III are the same as that in the civilian production vehicles. Carmichael's also produced a small number of Series III FC Fire tenders.

Forward Control Series IIa/IIb
Introduced in 1961 on a 109" utilising a modified Series IIa chassis the FC design lent it-self well to the fire engine role. Utilising its large solid platform and excellent off road capabilities to get to the action in emergency situations.

The Configuration allowed coach builders to incorporate a rear bench seat to the cab to house a bigger crew. The wheelbase was increased to 110" in 1966 when the vehicle became designated Series IIb.

pictured left is a Series IIb vehicle as used by the Austrian Fire-Brigade it features a porch-pump and a cab with 9 seats.

Dennis Brothers Coach builders produced a prototype based on the 88" FC chassis, this was found to be an unstable platform due to pitching and only 2 were built.

Forward Control Series III

SIII Carmichael

Carmichael's produced the Forward Control Fire tender as pictured right. I think these had a very space age look to them maybe taking styling cues from the Jetsons, these vehicles would make a fantastic looking ice-cream van today.

F.I. Bates of Evesham also produced a Series III Forward Control vehicles known as FC108/Bates L4P Fire Engine between 1973 and 1978 most were supplied to the Northern Ireland Fire Brigade. These 4-seated vehicles were produced with a 100-gallon water tank which had to be replaced with 50-gallon tanks due to stability problems, around 53 were built.

Range Rover

TACR2 Range Rover

Introduced in the early 1970's Carmichael and Gloster Saro produced the TACR2. This 6x4 Range Rover was developed for the rapid response crash rescue role required at airfields. During service with the RAF Fire Service and Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm, it proved itself to be a very fast response vehicle, reaching 124mph on public roads. This out ran the police's fastest car of the day, the Ford Granada, that was required to escort them on public roads.

Unfortunately the additional axle was prone to "digging in" on soft ground reducing it's off road capabilities.

Recovery

During the cold war years it was noted that soviet satellite pictures picked out the bright red Crash Tenders during exercises giving away positions. A directive from the MOD ordered that the red be covered over with the matt army green paint, much to the distaste of the crews.

A retired Station Officer told me that during this "green period" he had gone on leave, the tenders were the matt-green when he left. On his return he found to his surprised the vehicles were now a very shiny gloss-green; the sergeant informed him that the men had cleaned and polished the tenders for his return. This change restored some of the lost pride in the vehicles to the crews.

Following complaints from the Ministry of Transport that it was now very difficult to distinguish the Crash Tenders from normal military vehicles on public roads, the Tenders were returned to the original red colour.

TACR1's & TACR2's can be seen at the RAF Fire Service Museum, Half Penny Green, Wolverhampton.

90 & 110 / Defender

90" & 110" Tenders

Pictured here are a 90" & a 110" Land Rover, the latter has a double rear axle, these vehicles are part of the Gibraltar Fire Service fleet. The 6x6 vehicles are popular with Fire Services across Australia.

The current production Fire Fighting model to come from the Special Vehicles Division of Landrover is based on either the Defender D110 or D130 with a choice of single or double crew cab and the Td5 engine fitted. Features include Collins Youldon hose reels and a 900-litre water tank.

Three fire-fighting options available are a soaker system, a compressed air foam (CAF) system or a fire fogging system. The fire fogging system produces heat-absorbing vapour, which uses less water to greater effect than a conventional system.

John Dennis Coach builders (JDC) is also producing fire-fighting vehicles based on the Land Rover chassis.