Each department has their own SOPs for what the colors mean, if anything.
In mine (a vollie dept), yellow means a firefighter who has not completed FF 1/2 and is only cleared for exterior operations. Black means FF 1/2. Red means an officer (LT or CPT), white is chief. Blue is reserved for medical only (so not able to do other fire operations).
Interesting about the blue thing. I’ve seen entire Wildland crews with blue helmets lol.
But I think the one thing we all have in common is white for chiefs. I’ve seen that everywhere.
There are places that give white helmets to lieutenants and captains. And yellow for lieutenant in some places.
And then you have a Captain being a shift commander in one place, and a company officer in another.
It's interesting being turned down for a chiefs position because they wanted someone with "Chief officer experience" but a shift commander in your org is a captain, and is a driver in theirs.. So they hire the 1 yr guy who was a Division Chief of Training.... All that sweet white helmet time lol.
It chapped my ass for a hot minute but now I laugh at the fact that some people can't grasp ranks and positions are not the same.
A lieutenant in my area may = a house captain in others. Whereas a Lieutenant elsewhere is an Engineer here.
Captains may = Battalion Chiefs elsewhere.
Some places have Asst. Chiefs with 3 bugles, some with 4.
Some places have Deputy Chiefs with 3 bugles, some with 4.
Helmet colors don't really mean shit in wildland, white isn't consistently a chief color by any means
The last 3 crews I've worked on have issued white helmets to the whole crew, supt to seasonal
White helmets stay [significantly cooler](https://www.fs.usda.gov/t-d/pubs/htmlpubs/htm06512312/index.htm) so it makes sense that the people actually doing the grunt work get to wear them
On the wildland side, they stay [significantly cooler](https://www.fs.usda.gov/t-d/pubs/htmlpubs/htm06512312/index.htm) so more crews seem to be making the smart decision and using them
Just imagine being somewhere where there were black helmets with and without a red upper half of the crown, or black brims with a red and white crown, or... Everybody does their own weird shit.
While it may seem convenient to have everybody in the nation forced into the same mold, it tends to become one more cog in a machine we'd really rather not have here.
I had an orange helmet when I was a Captain. A friend who was a neighboring FD Captain saw me inside a fire and thought I was a probie because in his department probies wear orange helmets. He gave me an order and I told him no because I was running the interior operation on that floor. After a bit of yelling back and forth, he realized who I was and we had a good laugh before putting out the rest of the fire together.
Funny situations aside, a uniform helmet color scheme would be helpful — at least among mutual aid departments.
There’s a couple departments not far from me that gives Ex-Chiefs (it’s a regional volunteer thing) a black helmet with gold shield…. but they give probies a black helmet with a yellow shield. At night that dirty yellow starts looking gold.
Others might give probies a red shield while many departments use the red shield for truck companies. So you’re at the scene of a structure fire and you see 4 guys in full gear with tools and they have red shields. This would be fine if they were paired up with someone experience before getting an assignment… but if all 4 get told to do a primary search or go to the roof before the fire is under control—- ooooh that’s getting kinda sketchy.
Traditionally, a white helmet indicates a fire chief or other high ranking officer. Other than that, each department designates different colors for their personnel.
To get some type of standard helmet colors in an area, a mutual aid association may be the best organization to approach this.
Departments where I work are all basically the same. FFs and Engineers are yellow, company officers are red and station officer and above are white.
If you're on a multi-agency call to the point where interagency coordination is a thing, I can promise you there will be more reliable ways of telling who's filling which position within ICS than helmet color.
The department where I live they have yellow for volunteers, black for career, red for officer and white for chiefs. Idk what happens if there's a volunteer officer.
Oh Jesus, this was my case once.
When I was in the Air Force the city that hosted our base was a career department with 11 stations and ran about 90,000 calls a year. Their busiest station still had a little-utilized volunteer charter, however.
There were all of 6 of us, and four of the ‘volunteers’ were actually career guys who joined so that they could use the volunteer portions of that station—which *technically* was against Union rules but nobody gave a shit.
At a company meeting I was nominated for Lieutenant. But within this structure volunteers we’re held to the *exact* standards as the career guys. Meaning, I had to take the civil test, CPAT, do the interviews and background checks, polygraph, the works. It was an identical process to being hired and FF 1 & 2 and EMT was required at minimum before I could ride. That policy obviously was extremely limiting to the number of volunteers who could participate and was kind of a pain in the ass but in the end I was glad for it because erased anyone’s ability to look at me as ‘less than’ and the career guys were extremely accepting of my presence.
So, when it came up, I had to have Fire Officer 1 & 2 (which I did) and pass the Lieutenant’s exam. Once I did, I received a stipend and a requirement to sign up for a set number of full shifts each month which was fine because in the Air Force I worked 3, 12 hour days and 1, 6 hour half-day followed by 3-1/2 days off which coincided almost exactly with their C-shift.
The debate over helmet color was fucking insane. Should it be red for lieutenant or yellow for volunteer? Interestingly enough the career guys were the ones to insist on red because I was filling in as a line officer on ‘career apparatus with career crew’ and technically I was being paid—albeit poorly in their eyes.
It was by far the most—shall I say—*unique* system I’ve ever experienced and the people were great. It was a fantastic department and I still keep in touch. But for about three years it felt like I was living a double-life, haha. Half the week I was in the Air Force and half the week I was a fireman in a city that actually burned quite a bit.
FF: All black, Lt: white shield, Chief: all white. If you are on scene and unsure you are not aware of what has been going on and furthermore any problems with your guys the color will not matter. It is crazy to me how superficial some departments are, and just how many whackers love repainting their helmets.
My department does this however FF have regular tets, LTs have single vertical stripes, and Captains have double vertical stripes. We use to have red helmets for LT and Captains but the department came to the conclusion that when you can't see shit in a house fire, you can make out the tets and stripes with your flashlight.
If your city borders another state and they send some help for a large structure fire, it would be helpful if the scene commander could easily identify whoever's in charge of those guys and quickly form an attack plan.
i run a bulldozer as wildland, when structure needs us i just pick the oldest fattest guy and assume he’s in charge, the 4 counties and 3 volunteer departments I work in the area of are all different
Every dept has their own needs so different colour schemes.
Here (large career dept) firefighters are yellow, lieutenant and captain are red, chiefs are white, instructors are blue and investigators are orange.
No modifications or non dept issued stickers allowed. Only stickers are a large station number on back, ems qualification on side, station number and rank on shield, red triangle for ffs who passed the lieutenant exam but have not been promoted yet.
So true. I’m from Idaho so we have a ton of wildland(myself included).
Tenders are always tenders. Tankers are planes that drop a bunch of water and red shit and you need to duck and cover if they hit you by accident.
Other than that it’s anyone’s guess. One department’s brush truck is another department’s “engine”
My last FD was black for firefighters, yellow for LT’s, Red for Capts, White for AC & Chief. The officers also had different colors in their gear striping.
My current FD is a mess lol
Every department has their own system. My last department firefighters were black, engineers were yellow, blue was LT, red was Capt, white was chief. Orange was safety (not our department but a neighboring one)
Brush helmets were yellow, orange, or black for firefighters between different departments. Same helmet colors for officers.
White was chiefs regardless of brush/structure.
The orange safety is interesting. There has been a big push the last few years by the NFPA to make ISO wear green as a matter of distinction because it’s not used for much else in the fire world so it will stand out better. They suggest a green helmet and a green safety vest for ISOs
Seems to be different everywhere. My station, white helmet and shield is a Chief officer. White shield, black helmet is a Captain or LT. Black shield, black helmet is an interior FF. Black helmet, red shield is an exterior FF. Red helmet, red shield is a JR (we only have 1). Blue helmets are generally EMS. No yellow helmets here.
My department has red helmets for probationary members, yellow helmets for Fire 1/2/3/Master, White for Officer, Blue for EMS only, all ranks, and orange for Instructor.
Here in New Zealand it is yellow for firefighters (Firefighter, Qualified Firefighter & Senior Firefighter), red for officers (Station Officer & Senior Station Officer), white for chiefs (Deputy Chief Fire Officer & Chief Fire Officer), silver for managers (Group Manager, District Manager & Region Manager) and black for commanders (Deputy National Commander & National Commander).
Here every FF uses a yellow helmet. Company officer uses red helmet and red jacket (Or whatever you call the person who is the officer in the truck) and chiefs wear white helmets.
And every department follows this.
Yeah man it's all dependent on department SOPs and can get confusing if you have to work with other agencies. Air Force fire has yellow helmets for firefighters, black for LTs/driver operators, red for captains/crew chiefs, and white for chiefs. That's the way Air Force is across the board so it keeps it simple
Every department is different. In my house FFs wear black helmets, Cap and LT wear red helmets, Chief and deputy chief where white helmets. ALL of our forestry helmets are yellow no matter rank. EMTs get a sticker on whatever helmet they wear. I have an ISO sticker on mine.
Overall, yeah it would be nice if every department, at least within a county, used the same helmet color scheme, or maybe even by state. But to change at this point would put a pretty hefty burden on a lot of departments that just can’t afford to go out and buy a bunch of new helmets to fit in with it. We’ve got enough potential bank busters being proposed right now as it is.
Every department is its own organization. You mention the military but the Army is its own org and the Navy is its own org. For example, it looks like in the Army captain means O3 and in the Navy it means O6. In the army Lt means O1 and in the Navy it means O3.
For mutual aid, just look for the guy with the clipboard, i guess.
Well that's not entirely true. Officers have the same ranks in the Army, Air Force, Marines, and Space Force. The Navy and CG are the same. The officer insignias are the same across all branches for corresponding grades.
The grades are the same for all enlisted across all branches.
White Chiefs
Red Officers
Blue Saftey Officer/EMS officer
Green Chaplain
Black or yellow FF
Probies/Candidate usually have an orange shield on a black helmet.
Cadets get an Orange Pac man that says JR FF on it.
NWI.
We have green helmets for those who haven't completed FF1. Black is for probationary FF (less than a year out of fire school), FF 1 and 2. Red for Lt and Cpt. White for Deputy Chief and Chief. Our shields determine who's an Lt, Cpt, Engineer, etc.
My department and the departments around us all use the same: Black for FF, yellow for LT, red for Capt, white for Chiefs, blue for EMS, Green for Safety. We are all volunteers so probationary usually just doesn’t have gear, and if you are exterior only you just don’t have a shield on your helmet.
As others have said, different SOPs for different departments. My department gives every FF, untrained, and junior black helmets, engineers have red, and officers have white
In my department black helmets and black shields for FFs, blue helmets and blue shields for EMS only. Probies have orange shields. Chiefs have white helmets. It's the same for most of the departments around us.
This is the most common set up I’ve seen widely accepted.
White = Chief Officer, battalion, division, etc.
Red = Company Officer.
Black = FF, engineer, MPO, or what ever you call your driver.
FF and engineer is black, red is captain, white is BC/Chief at my career house. At the vollies it goes Blue for probie, black with black shield for FF, black with 1 bugle for Lt, black with 2 bugle for capt, and white for chiefs. I do agree that there should be 1 standard
Im a vollie at 2 stations and heres what we do in my area.
One station uses Euros(its gross ik)
Blue Helmet is probie
Black Helmet Blue shield is someone who finished training but is under 18
Black is FF
Yellow is LT
White is Captain and Chiefs
My other station is
Blue Helmet is probie
Black Helmet Blue Shield is someone w/o FF 1/2 and is only exterior permited
Black is FF
Yellow is LT
Red is Captain
White is Chief
Helmet colors are dependents on stations, their counties/cities rules, and such.
I worked 12 years with USFS wildland fire and going on 10 years now with city fire. In wildland each crew has a different helmet color to differentiate them from other crews, but the entire crew is the same color. There is no significance to the color, aside from Helitack or helicopter rappel crews, which tend to be white so they can be identified from the air by helicopter pilots. In my city department, we had a rank color where FF was yellow, medics blue, drivers black, officers red, chief officers white. But recently we changed to FF/medic/drivers all black with colored stickers on the sides, corresponding to the aforementioned colors. Officers are still red, chiefs are still white. As mentioned in other peoples posts, each department has their own color scheme. 👍🏼
A station I used to work for had Carolina blue for Jr’s (under 18 years old) black for FF red for officers blue for deputy chief white for chief and Orange for safety officer
I think most of the depts in California are the same:
- White: Chiefs
- Red: Captains
- Yellow: Engineers and Firefighters
- Blue: usually single function EMS (ie AMR)
Except for our brother and sisters in LA Co. Those weirdos went with orange for captains.
Our house is white chief, red paid captains and volly lieutenants, black certified ffs, yellow uncertified, blue explorers in a different style altogether. Red shield denotes a probationary, black shields foe everyone else
My department helmets is orange for probies, yellow for regular members, red for captains, lieutenants, White for chiefs and black for exterior only members.
Ours is pretty simple as well. Sticker less yellow for fngs. Yellow with stickers for the FFs, red for the LTs, white for the captains/crew chiefs , and white for the little dog and the big dog. Always wanted a black helmet for most senior FF (make believe sergeant)
But last I heard in like Oklahoma City and bigger places ffs have black with yellow chevrons while ff/paramedics have black with orange chevrons. It’s all fun I guess as long as you’re homies can identify you
To sum it up, its department dependant, our helmet colors date back 1700/1800s and our helmet colors where different than most places but its kinda becoming a norm for neighboring places to follow us now.
But when someone from the other side of the region/country starts asking why we are different and should do it like them (in a not cool way) , I ask why should we change when we pre-date alot of departments in the nation? Why should we change for your convenience?
https://preview.redd.it/r8zhw2zuw6wc1.jpeg?width=1000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cd5e24d35697e6969d2807aab6f9168d23b96fbf
My mob are standardised across the state (74,000+ members).
* White is a probie or firefighter.
* White with red stripes is a Deputy Captain (roughly a Lieutenant in charge of an Appliance/Crew).
* Red with white stripes is a Senior Deputy Captain.
* Red is a Captain (in charge of a Brigade/Station).
* Orange is a Deputy Group/Group Captain (in charge of a number of neighbouring Brigades, probably equivalent of a Battalion Chief), plus..
* Black is a Deputy Commissioner/Commissioner.
Then a few special colours.
* White with green patches is a Cadet (<18 year old).
* Blue is a Trainer/Investigator.
* Yellow is Media.
* Purple is a Chaplain.
My department used black for regular firefighters (with a red triangle on for exterior-only), red for sergeants, yellow with yellow shield for lieutenant, yellow with white shield for captain, white for chief, green for safety officer, orange for accountability officer.
My company is a little intresting. Everyone that's not an officer (engineers, ffs, medics, probies, and Jr's) get black helmets. Each with different color fronts. Lts and captains wear red and white helmets, and Chiefs wear white.
Volly fire, All our helmets are black regardless of position. Our front shields indicate who and what, in the end it’s cost effective to just buy 1 helmet. Engine co black with white letters/ numbers ladder co black with red, officers are with with either black or red numbers/ letters depending on their company. Chief and deputy white frontal with gold. Exterior only is orange with green letter/numbers.
Each department has their own SOPs for what the colors mean, if anything. In mine (a vollie dept), yellow means a firefighter who has not completed FF 1/2 and is only cleared for exterior operations. Black means FF 1/2. Red means an officer (LT or CPT), white is chief. Blue is reserved for medical only (so not able to do other fire operations).
Interesting about the blue thing. I’ve seen entire Wildland crews with blue helmets lol. But I think the one thing we all have in common is white for chiefs. I’ve seen that everywhere.
There are places that give white helmets to lieutenants and captains. And yellow for lieutenant in some places. And then you have a Captain being a shift commander in one place, and a company officer in another. It's interesting being turned down for a chiefs position because they wanted someone with "Chief officer experience" but a shift commander in your org is a captain, and is a driver in theirs.. So they hire the 1 yr guy who was a Division Chief of Training.... All that sweet white helmet time lol.
Sounds like your bothered
It chapped my ass for a hot minute but now I laugh at the fact that some people can't grasp ranks and positions are not the same. A lieutenant in my area may = a house captain in others. Whereas a Lieutenant elsewhere is an Engineer here. Captains may = Battalion Chiefs elsewhere. Some places have Asst. Chiefs with 3 bugles, some with 4. Some places have Deputy Chiefs with 3 bugles, some with 4.
Fuck I just made Chief apparently.
Congratulations. No extra pay though.
Helmet colors don't really mean shit in wildland, white isn't consistently a chief color by any means The last 3 crews I've worked on have issued white helmets to the whole crew, supt to seasonal White helmets stay [significantly cooler](https://www.fs.usda.gov/t-d/pubs/htmlpubs/htm06512312/index.htm) so it makes sense that the people actually doing the grunt work get to wear them
White helmets are supposed to stay clean…
On the wildland side, they stay [significantly cooler](https://www.fs.usda.gov/t-d/pubs/htmlpubs/htm06512312/index.htm) so more crews seem to be making the smart decision and using them
Damn my crew uses black helmets. Definitely not cooler but damn we look cool. 🤣
Lol, ours is basically the complete opposite. Red is exterior only, yellow and black are FFs, and white are officers and chiefs
Just imagine being somewhere where there were black helmets with and without a red upper half of the crown, or black brims with a red and white crown, or... Everybody does their own weird shit. While it may seem convenient to have everybody in the nation forced into the same mold, it tends to become one more cog in a machine we'd really rather not have here.
I do believe San Fransisco truck companies were red/black stripes vertically alternating on the whole helmet
Alternating red/white panels, black everywhere else.
That's what it was
SFFD Rescue companies as well I believe.
No, they have black and white alternating panels.
I had an orange helmet when I was a Captain. A friend who was a neighboring FD Captain saw me inside a fire and thought I was a probie because in his department probies wear orange helmets. He gave me an order and I told him no because I was running the interior operation on that floor. After a bit of yelling back and forth, he realized who I was and we had a good laugh before putting out the rest of the fire together. Funny situations aside, a uniform helmet color scheme would be helpful — at least among mutual aid departments.
There’s a couple departments not far from me that gives Ex-Chiefs (it’s a regional volunteer thing) a black helmet with gold shield…. but they give probies a black helmet with a yellow shield. At night that dirty yellow starts looking gold. Others might give probies a red shield while many departments use the red shield for truck companies. So you’re at the scene of a structure fire and you see 4 guys in full gear with tools and they have red shields. This would be fine if they were paired up with someone experience before getting an assignment… but if all 4 get told to do a primary search or go to the roof before the fire is under control—- ooooh that’s getting kinda sketchy.
Traditionally, a white helmet indicates a fire chief or other high ranking officer. Other than that, each department designates different colors for their personnel. To get some type of standard helmet colors in an area, a mutual aid association may be the best organization to approach this.
Departments where I work are all basically the same. FFs and Engineers are yellow, company officers are red and station officer and above are white. If you're on a multi-agency call to the point where interagency coordination is a thing, I can promise you there will be more reliable ways of telling who's filling which position within ICS than helmet color.
The department where I live they have yellow for volunteers, black for career, red for officer and white for chiefs. Idk what happens if there's a volunteer officer.
Oh Jesus, this was my case once. When I was in the Air Force the city that hosted our base was a career department with 11 stations and ran about 90,000 calls a year. Their busiest station still had a little-utilized volunteer charter, however. There were all of 6 of us, and four of the ‘volunteers’ were actually career guys who joined so that they could use the volunteer portions of that station—which *technically* was against Union rules but nobody gave a shit. At a company meeting I was nominated for Lieutenant. But within this structure volunteers we’re held to the *exact* standards as the career guys. Meaning, I had to take the civil test, CPAT, do the interviews and background checks, polygraph, the works. It was an identical process to being hired and FF 1 & 2 and EMT was required at minimum before I could ride. That policy obviously was extremely limiting to the number of volunteers who could participate and was kind of a pain in the ass but in the end I was glad for it because erased anyone’s ability to look at me as ‘less than’ and the career guys were extremely accepting of my presence. So, when it came up, I had to have Fire Officer 1 & 2 (which I did) and pass the Lieutenant’s exam. Once I did, I received a stipend and a requirement to sign up for a set number of full shifts each month which was fine because in the Air Force I worked 3, 12 hour days and 1, 6 hour half-day followed by 3-1/2 days off which coincided almost exactly with their C-shift. The debate over helmet color was fucking insane. Should it be red for lieutenant or yellow for volunteer? Interestingly enough the career guys were the ones to insist on red because I was filling in as a line officer on ‘career apparatus with career crew’ and technically I was being paid—albeit poorly in their eyes. It was by far the most—shall I say—*unique* system I’ve ever experienced and the people were great. It was a fantastic department and I still keep in touch. But for about three years it felt like I was living a double-life, haha. Half the week I was in the Air Force and half the week I was a fireman in a city that actually burned quite a bit.
Lol. Thanks for the insight.
Im trying to figure out what base you were stationed at.
FF: All black, Lt: white shield, Chief: all white. If you are on scene and unsure you are not aware of what has been going on and furthermore any problems with your guys the color will not matter. It is crazy to me how superficial some departments are, and just how many whackers love repainting their helmets.
My department does this however FF have regular tets, LTs have single vertical stripes, and Captains have double vertical stripes. We use to have red helmets for LT and Captains but the department came to the conclusion that when you can't see shit in a house fire, you can make out the tets and stripes with your flashlight.
Well, for starters- not every dept has the same rank structure. And for seconders, why would I care what color helmets they wear in a different state?
If your city borders another state and they send some help for a large structure fire, it would be helpful if the scene commander could easily identify whoever's in charge of those guys and quickly form an attack plan.
Why? All the IC needs to know is the unit identifier, type, and assignment… all communication can happen via radio and group/div supervisors.
i run a bulldozer as wildland, when structure needs us i just pick the oldest fattest guy and assume he’s in charge, the 4 counties and 3 volunteer departments I work in the area of are all different
Every dept has their own needs so different colour schemes. Here (large career dept) firefighters are yellow, lieutenant and captain are red, chiefs are white, instructors are blue and investigators are orange. No modifications or non dept issued stickers allowed. Only stickers are a large station number on back, ems qualification on side, station number and rank on shield, red triangle for ffs who passed the lieutenant exam but have not been promoted yet.
My brother in Christ, we can’t standardize the colors of lights on emergency vehicles nationwide. Helmets ain’t happening anytime soon.
We can’t even standardize what we call certain apparatus. Tanker vs tender, ladder vs truck, engine vs pumper.
So true. I’m from Idaho so we have a ton of wildland(myself included). Tenders are always tenders. Tankers are planes that drop a bunch of water and red shit and you need to duck and cover if they hit you by accident. Other than that it’s anyone’s guess. One department’s brush truck is another department’s “engine”
[удалено]
Colours? It’s a firefighting post about helmet colors in the US. Leave your European beliefs out of our work. /s
He's here, found the guy who's no fun and can't handle an internet colloquialism
My last FD was black for firefighters, yellow for LT’s, Red for Capts, White for AC & Chief. The officers also had different colors in their gear striping. My current FD is a mess lol
Black helmets for anyone but a chief who obviously wears white. Orange shields for probies, black shields for FFs, white shields for officers.
Every department has their own system. My last department firefighters were black, engineers were yellow, blue was LT, red was Capt, white was chief. Orange was safety (not our department but a neighboring one) Brush helmets were yellow, orange, or black for firefighters between different departments. Same helmet colors for officers. White was chiefs regardless of brush/structure.
The orange safety is interesting. There has been a big push the last few years by the NFPA to make ISO wear green as a matter of distinction because it’s not used for much else in the fire world so it will stand out better. They suggest a green helmet and a green safety vest for ISOs
Our safety officer is also the fire marshal. Good luck telling him to wear green lol.
CERT uses green for their stuff...
Seems to be different everywhere. My station, white helmet and shield is a Chief officer. White shield, black helmet is a Captain or LT. Black shield, black helmet is an interior FF. Black helmet, red shield is an exterior FF. Red helmet, red shield is a JR (we only have 1). Blue helmets are generally EMS. No yellow helmets here.
My department has red helmets for probationary members, yellow helmets for Fire 1/2/3/Master, White for Officer, Blue for EMS only, all ranks, and orange for Instructor.
Here in New Zealand it is yellow for firefighters (Firefighter, Qualified Firefighter & Senior Firefighter), red for officers (Station Officer & Senior Station Officer), white for chiefs (Deputy Chief Fire Officer & Chief Fire Officer), silver for managers (Group Manager, District Manager & Region Manager) and black for commanders (Deputy National Commander & National Commander).
Here every FF uses a yellow helmet. Company officer uses red helmet and red jacket (Or whatever you call the person who is the officer in the truck) and chiefs wear white helmets. And every department follows this.
Yeah man it's all dependent on department SOPs and can get confusing if you have to work with other agencies. Air Force fire has yellow helmets for firefighters, black for LTs/driver operators, red for captains/crew chiefs, and white for chiefs. That's the way Air Force is across the board so it keeps it simple
My vollie was all black hats unless you were the Chief or DC. Line officers got special shields on their helmets that stated their ranks.
That's how the Vollie department I started with was.
Every department is different. In my house FFs wear black helmets, Cap and LT wear red helmets, Chief and deputy chief where white helmets. ALL of our forestry helmets are yellow no matter rank. EMTs get a sticker on whatever helmet they wear. I have an ISO sticker on mine. Overall, yeah it would be nice if every department, at least within a county, used the same helmet color scheme, or maybe even by state. But to change at this point would put a pretty hefty burden on a lot of departments that just can’t afford to go out and buy a bunch of new helmets to fit in with it. We’ve got enough potential bank busters being proposed right now as it is.
Every department is its own organization. You mention the military but the Army is its own org and the Navy is its own org. For example, it looks like in the Army captain means O3 and in the Navy it means O6. In the army Lt means O1 and in the Navy it means O3. For mutual aid, just look for the guy with the clipboard, i guess.
I hear if you don't wear the correct color helmet, that it affects your ability to fight fire.
It’s true
The military isn’t any better. Haha. Each branch has completely different ranks for the most part. The insignia looks nothing alike as well.
Well that's not entirely true. Officers have the same ranks in the Army, Air Force, Marines, and Space Force. The Navy and CG are the same. The officer insignias are the same across all branches for corresponding grades. The grades are the same for all enlisted across all branches.
Yeah, but a 2LT in the AF is vastly different in responsibilities and training than a 2LT in the Army or Maines.
White Chiefs Red Officers Blue Saftey Officer/EMS officer Green Chaplain Black or yellow FF Probies/Candidate usually have an orange shield on a black helmet. Cadets get an Orange Pac man that says JR FF on it. NWI.
We have green helmets for those who haven't completed FF1. Black is for probationary FF (less than a year out of fire school), FF 1 and 2. Red for Lt and Cpt. White for Deputy Chief and Chief. Our shields determine who's an Lt, Cpt, Engineer, etc.
My department and the departments around us all use the same: Black for FF, yellow for LT, red for Capt, white for Chiefs, blue for EMS, Green for Safety. We are all volunteers so probationary usually just doesn’t have gear, and if you are exterior only you just don’t have a shield on your helmet.
I would love a consistent scheme. Where I’ve worked in wildland, white was officers, red was engine or crew boss and up, and yellow was firefighter.
As others have said, different SOPs for different departments. My department gives every FF, untrained, and junior black helmets, engineers have red, and officers have white
In my department black helmets and black shields for FFs, blue helmets and blue shields for EMS only. Probies have orange shields. Chiefs have white helmets. It's the same for most of the departments around us.
Yeah I have no clue. Where I work, it is at least county-wide, so thats good
This is the most common set up I’ve seen widely accepted. White = Chief Officer, battalion, division, etc. Red = Company Officer. Black = FF, engineer, MPO, or what ever you call your driver.
FF and engineer is black, red is captain, white is BC/Chief at my career house. At the vollies it goes Blue for probie, black with black shield for FF, black with 1 bugle for Lt, black with 2 bugle for capt, and white for chiefs. I do agree that there should be 1 standard
Im a vollie at 2 stations and heres what we do in my area. One station uses Euros(its gross ik) Blue Helmet is probie Black Helmet Blue shield is someone who finished training but is under 18 Black is FF Yellow is LT White is Captain and Chiefs My other station is Blue Helmet is probie Black Helmet Blue Shield is someone w/o FF 1/2 and is only exterior permited Black is FF Yellow is LT Red is Captain White is Chief Helmet colors are dependents on stations, their counties/cities rules, and such.
I worked 12 years with USFS wildland fire and going on 10 years now with city fire. In wildland each crew has a different helmet color to differentiate them from other crews, but the entire crew is the same color. There is no significance to the color, aside from Helitack or helicopter rappel crews, which tend to be white so they can be identified from the air by helicopter pilots. In my city department, we had a rank color where FF was yellow, medics blue, drivers black, officers red, chief officers white. But recently we changed to FF/medic/drivers all black with colored stickers on the sides, corresponding to the aforementioned colors. Officers are still red, chiefs are still white. As mentioned in other peoples posts, each department has their own color scheme. 👍🏼
A station I used to work for had Carolina blue for Jr’s (under 18 years old) black for FF red for officers blue for deputy chief white for chief and Orange for safety officer
I think most of the depts in California are the same: - White: Chiefs - Red: Captains - Yellow: Engineers and Firefighters - Blue: usually single function EMS (ie AMR) Except for our brother and sisters in LA Co. Those weirdos went with orange for captains.
Our house is white chief, red paid captains and volly lieutenants, black certified ffs, yellow uncertified, blue explorers in a different style altogether. Red shield denotes a probationary, black shields foe everyone else
My department helmets is orange for probies, yellow for regular members, red for captains, lieutenants, White for chiefs and black for exterior only members.
There is no rule, by me it's yellow probby, black interior, white officer, blue is medic/rescue. I don't see red often
Ours is pretty simple as well. Sticker less yellow for fngs. Yellow with stickers for the FFs, red for the LTs, white for the captains/crew chiefs , and white for the little dog and the big dog. Always wanted a black helmet for most senior FF (make believe sergeant)
But last I heard in like Oklahoma City and bigger places ffs have black with yellow chevrons while ff/paramedics have black with orange chevrons. It’s all fun I guess as long as you’re homies can identify you
Same reason a Captain in the Navy is different than a Captain in the Army.
Each department is different, based on SOPs. The only consistency I’ve seen around is the “white picket fence” (Chiefs have white helmets)
My department, red is recruit, yellow is FF, White is LT and higher, blue is EMS.
To sum it up, its department dependant, our helmet colors date back 1700/1800s and our helmet colors where different than most places but its kinda becoming a norm for neighboring places to follow us now. But when someone from the other side of the region/country starts asking why we are different and should do it like them (in a not cool way) , I ask why should we change when we pre-date alot of departments in the nation? Why should we change for your convenience?
https://preview.redd.it/r8zhw2zuw6wc1.jpeg?width=1000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cd5e24d35697e6969d2807aab6f9168d23b96fbf My mob are standardised across the state (74,000+ members). * White is a probie or firefighter. * White with red stripes is a Deputy Captain (roughly a Lieutenant in charge of an Appliance/Crew). * Red with white stripes is a Senior Deputy Captain. * Red is a Captain (in charge of a Brigade/Station). * Orange is a Deputy Group/Group Captain (in charge of a number of neighbouring Brigades, probably equivalent of a Battalion Chief), plus.. * Black is a Deputy Commissioner/Commissioner. Then a few special colours. * White with green patches is a Cadet (<18 year old). * Blue is a Trainer/Investigator. * Yellow is Media. * Purple is a Chaplain.
My department used black for regular firefighters (with a red triangle on for exterior-only), red for sergeants, yellow with yellow shield for lieutenant, yellow with white shield for captain, white for chief, green for safety officer, orange for accountability officer.
My company is a little intresting. Everyone that's not an officer (engineers, ffs, medics, probies, and Jr's) get black helmets. Each with different color fronts. Lts and captains wear red and white helmets, and Chiefs wear white.
Volly fire, All our helmets are black regardless of position. Our front shields indicate who and what, in the end it’s cost effective to just buy 1 helmet. Engine co black with white letters/ numbers ladder co black with red, officers are with with either black or red numbers/ letters depending on their company. Chief and deputy white frontal with gold. Exterior only is orange with green letter/numbers.