Our vehicles
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Scania water tender
This is a standard fire engine and also referred to as an appliance or a pump. It holds 1,800 litres of water and equipment that firefighters use on a day-to-day basis to help them deal with the majority of different emergencies. We have two makes of fire engines within the Service - Scania and Dennis. The equipment on them is the same, they are just a different manufacturer of vehicle (the chassis). They are generally crewed by five firefighters.
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Dennis water tender
This is a standard fire engine and has exactly the same function and equipment as the Scania version above.
We have two different models of Dennis water tenders in operation - the Dennis Sabre and the RS Dennis. -
Rescue Vehicle (RV)
We have three of these stationed at Dogsthorpe, Huntingdon and Cambridge. They are crewed by two firefighters and, as the name suggests, are called to incidents which require a more complex rescue such as people trapped in or around water, or in confined spaces. They are also sent to road traffic collisions to provide extra support to crews cutting people free from wreckages. The RVs look similar to water tenders but do not have ladders on top and do not store water on them. The chasis of our RVs are manufactured by Man.
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Turntable Ladder (TL)
We currently have two TLs based at Dogsthorpe and Cambridge, each crewed by two firefighters. The TL has a mechanically extendable 30-metre ladder that can reach up to the 13th floor of a block of flats. It has a cage on the end to carry people safely back to the ground. It can also be moved to reach lower than ground level if required.
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Water Carrier (WC)
The water carrier is crewed by retained firefighters at Yaxley where it is housed and it contains 9,000 litres of water. This is used during incidents such as large fires which require a lot of water.
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Water Foam Unit (WFU)
The WFU is like the water carrier but is capable of producing foam which is used to put out some types of fires in preference to water. The WFU is housed at Huntingdon and crewed by two retained firefighters. -
Incident Command Unit (ICU)
The ICU is similar to a mobile office and is sent to the scene of an incident for incident commanders (the officers in charge of an incident) to work from to coordinate the firefighting or rescue operation. It contains wipe boards, seating, a fax machine and a meeting area. The ICU is housed at Huntingdon and is crewed by two retained firefighters.
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Incident Support Unit (ISU)
The ISU is housed at March and contains spare Breathing Apparatus (BA) cylinders. It also has a small kitchen on board and is called out during incidents that take a long time to deal with, so firefighters can get food and drink - which is important for them to keep their energy levels up and keep them warm and hydrated. When the ISU is called to an incident, an additional fire engine with a full crew is also sent to staff it.
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Incident Response Unit (IRU)
The IRU is based at Stanground and is a vehicle provided by Communities and Local Government (CLG) for use at Chemical, Biological, Nuclear and Radiological (CBRN) incidents. It stores gas-tight suits and has other equipment on board such as portable shower units and decontamination tents.
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Hazardous Material Unit (HMU)
The HMU is housed at St. Neots and is used to deal with any standard chemical incident. It contains specialist equipment and information required to deal with this type of emergency. It is crewed by two retained firefighters from the station.
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High Volume Pump (HVP)
Our HVP is housed at Huntingdon and is crewed by two retained firefighters. A crew from another retained station is sent with the HVP to assist with setting it up. The HVP is used to pump large quantities of water to an incident, or it can be used to move large quantities of water away from an area such as in flood situations. The HVP has been provided by the department for Communities and Local Government (CLG).
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Driver Trainer Vehicle
This is a standard fire engine with an L-plate on the front and rear. Firefighters undertake an intensive in-house training course before they can drive the fire engines. First they complete a five day Light Goods Vehicle (LGV) basic driving course and are assessed by an affiliated Driving Standards Agency (DSA) examiner. They must then drive a fire engine for six months or 600 miles on non-emergency journeys. They can then complete an Emergency Fire Appliance Driver (EFAD) course after which they are assessed and if they pass they can drive a fire engine to emergencies on blue lights.
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Officer cars
Our fire officers take the role of incident commanders at the scenes of property fires, RTCs and other significant incidents. They have special vehicles that look like civilian cars, but at the switch of a button have blue lights and sirens for use when travelling to emergencies. Our new fleet of officer cars are VW Passat Estates. They use the latest super bright LED technology and these special lights are fitted discretely to indicator lights, wing mirrors and reverse lights and flash when activated.
