This poll is mostly for US people only because I have no idea if equivalent things exist elsewhere. If you have something to contribute by all means chime in.
I recently hosted my young cousin and his friend who were visiting from Las Vegas. Both are 17 years old. Cousin has lived in LV for about the last 10 years, I don’t know how long the friend has lived there. Somewhere in the Greater Boston Area we chanced upon a vehicle that resembled this one (the first one at the top of the page):
The two kids had apparently never seen anything like it before. They actually had a little discussion about what the car could be used for. Direct quote: “It’s too small to be a fire truck!?”.
Don’t they have Fire Chief cars in Las Vegas and such places? Or do they drive SUVs instead?..I came across some Fire Chief SUVs when I Googled for that picture. Or do these kids just spend too much time in front of the TV or computer?
Well, of course I know that. But THEIR amazement left me at a loss for words. My reaction was along the lines of: “Well, it’s for…they use it to…the Fire Chief, you know…don’t they have those in Las Vegas?” Real eloquent, like.
You know, I saw one of these for the first time a couple of weeks ago, and it was odd at first. I see fire trucks in action all the time around here, but never a fire car - the one I saw was parked at the time. But it has flashing lights, so I assume it’s intended for emergency situations?
I imagined a car going first to the scene, clearing the traffic for the bulkier trucks, would be useful, but I’ve never seen it used like that. Maybe someone can explain when exactly these cars get used?
United Statians? We don’t call ourselves that, how would you tell us apart from people in the United States of Mexico? They haven’t adopted it either, you notice, because it sounds so damn goofy
But anyway, the fire chiefs here use them too. They also have pickup trucks like that, but I haven’t seen any SUVs for the fire department, just a few for the police.
It is interesting they refer to the Chiefs trucks, not cars. I couldn’t find a picture here but they must use SUVs or pickups as well. I grew up in that area.
Johnny LA those fire Jeeps are cute. I bet they’ve proven useful too.
SmackFu I didn’t see your question until after I submitted, but the Lake Carmel Fire Department I linked to is apparently at least mostly volunteer, and the Chiefs get their own vehicles.
I’m in Vegas, and they do use SUVs here. Never payed attention to which, but never seen a car like that here. Even the cops have more SUVs than cars (Ford Explorer for cops).
Also the highway patrol has a few (I have heard 4) F-150 pickups. The trucks are painted a very bright purple color. They are used as mobile smog stations for diesel trucks. Nevada dosen’t require smog on a yearly basis for diesel trucks over 8600lbs, but they can pull you over at any time and do the check on the side of the road with the stuff they carry.
As a journalist who used to cover several fire departments, I can officially answer this question: no. Volunteer fire departments usually have just barely enough $$ just for their fire engines, and they’re usually secondhand, at that. Only departments with a significant full-time staff would have official transportation such as that depicted. And maybe not even then, if money’s tight.
I would say at a minimum, a town of about 15,000 might have a big enough fire department to provide the chief with his own car. But it would be one of the first things to go if finances became a problem.
As for the “amazement” mentioned in the OP, hey, they’re 17. As far as I’m concerned, that says it all. They’re probably just amazed they’d never seen it on TV before.
Side note: in Oregon, the State Police use a few Camaros as pursuit vehicles on Interstate 5. Not that was strange!
I can say, from living in Cincinnati, southwest Florida and St. Louis that the only SUV owned by a police department that I’ve seen is here, in Richmond Heights. And I’ve seen plenty of fire departments with Crown Vics, painted red just like the picture. There’s one here in Brentwood.
Like CharlesW, I can say that we don’t see a ton of Chief’s Cars in these parts either - sure, in Portland proper we do, but even in some of the larger suburbs, Jeep Cherokees and Ford Explorers are the vehicles of choice. Get more than 20 or 30 miles out of town and you’re not liable to see much on the road other than pickup trucks anyway - fire department or not.
Must be a western thing. We don’t salt the roads out here either - we actually carry TIRE CHAINS!! And when I first moved here in 1994, most of the gas stations still sold regular gas - no, not unleaded regular. Just ‘REGULAR’ - as in old fashioned, 1960’s fully leaded, regular. 'Course they don’t let you pump your own gas here either, but they don’t in New Jersey either (and I think Ontario) so at least we aren’t alone on that one…
Oh, wait, I went off on a tangent there, didn’t I?
All this fuss over a Fire Chief’s car? I live in a semi-rural area and that’s not that odd to me. Heck, the fire chief for Mayfield (town of ~10,000) has one. Fairly new, too.
I’ve seen everything on the page, except a fire and rescue boat. Not all places have a fire chief’s car, but I would imagine that Las Vegas would have several.
