chicagoareafire.com

5 Comments

• #1 by Chuck on May 4, 2025 - 9:27 AM

  

  There has never been any love lost between the FDNY and the NYPD ESU. ESU gets in the way at extrications thinking they’re firemen.

• #2 by crabbymilton on May 2, 2025 - 6:21 AM

  

  Interesting and informative history Bill. I have seen many pictures over the years of such units used by PD’s. Often times some were featured in the respective builder’s brochures. I can’t help but think that a few were bought on a piggyback arrangement with the FD to save money then the PD would finish it themselves thru a contractor. Either way it’s always better to use such a platform rather than a bread truck or old school bus.

• #3 by Bill Post on May 1, 2025 - 8:55 PM

  

  Crabby you are correct that there haven’t been that many police type “tactical vehicles built on Fire Apparatus “Style” chassis however there are a few exceptions.
  The largest exception that I can think of is in New York City however.

  Are you familiar with the New York City Police’s ,ESU .better known at the Emergency Service Unit?
  They are actually a combination of SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) and a Rescue Squad however they have been in service for a long time in New York City and they actually predated SWAT by close to 40 to 50 years.
  They began using them in New York City in 1925 and the Intention was to use them as a Manpower and Weapons Squad for the Police and they were also used and still are New York City’s main Rescue Squad.

  While the New York City Fire Department has been using Rescue companies since 1915 the New York City Police has been running with a much larger Fleet of Emergency Service Unit Squads for a long time.

  While the New York City Fire Department currently runs with 5 Heavy Rescue companies, the NYPD runs with about a dozen Heavy Rescue Style Emergency Service Units plus about 40 smaller Light Rescue Squad style utility units which are called REP units which stands for Radio Emergency Patrols.
  The NYPD ESU Squads run out of 10 designated Police Stations which have a garage attached for the ESU Trucks. Some of the ESU stations also have specialty apparatus assigned such ” Construction Accident Units” which is just another term for building Collapse Vehicle.
  They also run with their own Haz Mat Squad plus several Military Style Swat Vehicles as well.
  They also have several Zodiac boat and Jet Skis that support the NYPD Marine unit.

  The NYPD ESU division headquarters is based at Floyd Bennett Field in southern Brooklyn and is a former Military Airport.
  Before the mid 1950s the ESU division ran out of 20 Police Stations but they were cut in half and reduced to 10 as that is when several of their Large Rescue Trucks were replaced by their smaller Radio Emergency Patrol units which do the brunt of their work while the Large Squads go out on the more serious jobs to assist the REP units.

  I know that some of you are asking yourselves why would the New York City Police department run do Rescue work when that is a Fire Department job and the Fire Department has their own Rescue Squads?.
  In the case of New York City the Fire Department Rescue Squads mainly did Fire and Smoke Rescues and their Rescue Companies basically were early RIT teams that Rescued trapped fire fighters while the Police Emergency Service Units went to Non Fire Related Rescues such as Auto Accidents , Subway and Train Accidents , Jumpers and People in the Water type of calls.
  The NYPD ESU squads also used to go on what we in Chicago called inhalators.
  If you have been in Chicago for a long time you might recall that the Original Chicago fire department Squad companies that were in service from 1913 to 1968 ran on many inhalator runs which is what the NYPD ESU Squads also did.
  Remember the New York City Fire Rescue companies primarily went to fires and in recent years they have been going to non fire related Rescue runs.
  New York City normally only ran with 4 or 5 Rescue companies.
  Today’s New York City Squad companies are basically 8 Engine companies that were converted into Rescue Engines in 1998 with the exception of Squads 1, 41 and 8.
  The Original New York City Squads of the 1950s and early 1960s were just manpower companies that ran in areas with a large amount of fires and they were nothing like Chicago’s old Squad companies which ran on fire , ems and rescue runs.2

• #4 by Rj on May 1, 2025 - 3:44 PM

  

  That rig looks awesome! And imagine the amount of intell and fire power that thung can bring to bear when it shows up! ‘Murica

• #5 by crabbymilton on May 1, 2025 - 1:12 PM

  

  Not too many tactical vehicles are built on fire apparatus chassis but when they are, you know that it’ll hold up well as opposed to a bread truck. Handsome looking rig.

Comments are closed.