Changing helmet color

[patrickharper]

I issue a challenge to all firefighter on the forum.

My fire department in Indiana has, since its existence, worn yellow helmets. This is not, however consistent with the other fire departments in the county. In interest of conformity, the majority of the interested firefighters of my department would like to change the color of our firefighter’s helmets from yellow to black.

This is where you come into play.

We would like your opinions and comments on:

1. Why we should conform to the other departments in the county.
2. How we go about convincing the chiefs to allow us to make the switch.

Switching helmets in favor of a countywide consistency is nothing new to us. Several departments in close by counties have done the same thing.

Thanks

[gah74]

Do officers wear a different color helmet than everyone else? For example, our Lt.s have black helmets, Capts have red helmets, Chiefs white, and everyone else yellow...

It makes command structure easy to see when everyone is bunked out. If the other depts in your county do something similar to that, it may be in the best interest of your department to match colors to prevent confusion on a mutual-aid fire.

Outside of that, I don't see any pressing reason for your dept to change helmet colors. What type of helmet are y'all wearing? Something paintable or will y'all have to replace all the helmets?

[T3]

Does your fire department run mutual aid with the neighbors? If so, this could be your stongest argument in favor of the change. Having to memorize various helmet colors for multiple departments is one less thing to worry about. The failure to apply the KISS principle can really muck up the fireground!

Morale is the second point. Keeping the troops happy is critical. If this is something that is important to the firefighters, doesn't cost more than can be reasonably afforded and improves ops (through simplicity) then why not?

Just my $.02 worth. Good luck with your sales pitch.

[PAVolunteer]

I would actually argue against changing colors to match everyone else's. I think it's much easier if our leathers are natural, and the neighbors leathers are black/yellow/whatever. Then I know who's is with my company and who is with another company. However, all Chief's should have white helmets, that is one conformity that should be universal.

Stay Safe

[patrickharper]

We currently have the following colors

YELLOW -Firefighters
RED -Capt and Lt
White -Chiefs

We would like to go to this

Black -Firefighters
Yellow -Lt
Red -Capt
White -Chief

This is consistant with the rest of the fire departments in the county.

[bjhfd]

We have the following scheme in our department, though all of our mutual aid towns do something different.

Probies -Black Helmets with Orange Shields
FF-Black helmets with Black Shields
LT - Black Helmet with Yellow Shields
Capt-Yellow Helmet
Chief-White Helmet
Cadets/Juniors - Red Helmet
EMS - Blue Hard Hats

As far as convincing the powers that be(chiefs) that change should be welcomed, just tell them that if everyone was standard, incident management would be a lot easier, instead of guessing who is what rank, etc.

[firemtgene74]

DONT CHANGE THEM STAND OUT IN A CROWD FOR CHRISTS SAKE. "CAUSE EVERYONE ELSE IS DOING IT" IS ABOUT AS BAD AS "CAUSE THATS THE WAY WE HAVE ALWAYS DONE IT"

[Afd063]

Our Firefighters wear Yellow, Captains wear Red and the upper crowd white. I have to say that after about two or three good burners all the helmets look the same, Black. It really hasn't helped us with knowing who is who on the fire scene.

[joecanuk]

that,s a lot of colours that id look like someone tryin to BB-Que a box of skittles :D :D

[Lt.111577]

Our departments color scheme is like this-
firefighters-black
engineers-black
officers-red
chiefs-white
The only difference between firefighters and engineers is the leather front on the helmet.

Personally I think that color of helmet doesnt matter, except that the chiefs should have a different color then everyone else.


Lets be safe out there.

[smokeyben1]

G'day from down-under, our department changed helmets several years ago and went to Bullards, in doing this they made the same basic mistake as they had done nearly 30 years previous. They decided that firefighters up to and including the rank of Station Officer wear yellow,Inspectors and Superintendants wear red and Assistant Commisioners and the Commish wear black. Now in their wisdom they realise that it is hard to distinguish Station Officers at jobs so surprise surprise they are changing the colour of their helmets. DOH!!!. Stay Safe.
P.S. Don't change just because every one else is the same, be an individual brigade, standout in the crowd, don't be a sheep.

[ 11-23-2001: Message edited by: smokeyben1 ]

[shammrock54]

Stay w/ what u know and have. as long as it works in your own town and everyone knows it use it. as far as mutual aid goes the old timers adage that has been applied in my area w/ making accountability uniform for eight towns "as soon as u leave town everything is out the window" so keep your guys safe with what they know + the other towns have gotten used to u by now.

[FORTff]

Everyone around us does there own thing, but it is similar enough to everyone that we pretty much know who is who and what is what. For us
Firefighters - Black with Black Coats
Lt's and Capt's - White Helmet with Black Coats and a Lieutenant or Captain on the back of the coat.
Chiefs have White Helmets and White Coats with Assistant Chief or Chief of the back.
Engineers have Red Helmets.

[Hillcrest379NY]

I really do think we're playing a game of Skittle Soup here with all the colors, but to add to the confusion, ours are even weirder.

Probie - Black Helmet/Orange (ugly) sheild
FF - Black Helmet/Black Sheild
Engineer - Red Helmet/Red Sheild
Captain/Cheifs - White Helmet/White Sheild
Ex Chiefs - White Sheild/Black Helmet
Fire Rescue - Yellow Helmet/Blue Sheild
Safety Officer - Blue Helmet/White Sheild

I THINK that's all of the funky combinations... most of them anyway. Plus we have our tag system with green, blue, orange, yellow, black and red tags... We look like the rainbow bunch. HOWEVER, this is OUR OWN SYSTEM. Every dept in the county does it differently in Rockland. Mutual aide problems? Not really, we hardly ever call them. But they call us enough to know by now. And it helps at mutual aide scenes to know who goes where. I say, keep it real, keep it yours. So what if you got the yellow beetle helmets? If they're yours, keep em. ;)

[truckie_ladderco_147]

Yellow firefighters red captains orange safety officer white chiefs.easy as pie really.Skittle stew is better than skittle soup and union proud is on it in his post.Just because the lemmings dive off doesnt mean you cant use a chute :D Stay safe and hope to Christ your chief isnt color blind.

[TCmib379]

Tazewell Co. F.D has always been the same.. FF/Lt/capt. all yellow and chiefs white black gear with green striping the chief wants to switch but he has set the officers with the different color codes ut I think FF black/yellow Chiefs and capt white ut I think you should switch just for the professional look!!! :D

[Smokeetr4]

My Vollie company recently switched from yellow helmets to black. The old yellow helmets are issued to the PROBIES for easy fireground identification. After they have attended the appropriate classes they are given a black helmet. It has worked out well.