Posted by Tom Markert on Friday, August 17, 2001 at 9:57PM :
In Reply to: Fire truck question posted by Rob Rose on Friday, August 17, 2001 at 1:40AM :
Historically, the first trucks of any type, commercial or fire, that were produced were open cab by virtue of their evolution from the horse wagon and buggy. Open cabs which are cabs without doors or roof eventually were replaced by "semi cabs",a cab with doors but no roof. This style was often retained in the fire service for such reasons as better visability, more room to move about the interior with your turn out coat and helmet on, and quicker and easier entrance and exit from the cab. Also it is said that since firemen were not high up on the list of prefered citizens, the added expense of a cab roof was deemed unnecessary. The old time fire apparatus designers had a saying about thier apparatus- "designed by geniuses to be used by cretins". This exemplified the tone on how the members of the fire service in the early half of the century were treated. There is nothing like chipping three inches of ice off the driver`s seat and steering wheel of your rig after fighting a 10 hour fire in sub freezing temperatures just to drive back to the fire house- a common sight right up into the 1960`s.
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