Gen 1 Fire Tender

History

Typical outfits paired a pump driven from the centre power take-off (with rear pump installations on many vehicles) with hose reels, ladders, extinguishers and, on some vehicles, a 40-gallon first-aid water tank; others were equipped more simply as hose carriers and towing vehicles for trailer pumps. The customers were rarely city brigades, whose appliances were far larger; Gen 1 fire engines instead went to factories, airfields, estates, and rural county brigades that needed a compact all-wheel-drive appliance able to reach a moorland or farm fire. Surviving examples include vehicles delivered new to works brigades - the printing firm Hazell, Watson & Viney among them - and machines like the 1958 Gen 1 fire engine LCC23 and the 1949 tender JRT 797 now shown at museums and concours events, almost invariably in traditional fire-appliance red.