West Midlands Fire Service - Fire Appliances

Fire Appliances

West Midlands Fire Service operates over 60 front line fire engines, mainly of the Dennis Sabre type. The service also operates a number of specialist appliances compromising several hydraulic platforms with up to a 29 metre reach, three specialised command support vehicles equipped with extensive communication and control facilities and now a brand new ISIS remote controlled drone. As well as these, there a number of specialised demountable pods for various roles (Water rescue unit, Environmental Unit, etc.) that are located around at five stations around the county and transported to incidents on the back of a heavy duty prime mover.

The government's New Dimension programme has equipped the brigade with three Incident Response Units, two High Volume Pumping Units, one Detection Identification and Monitoring vehicle along with the Urban Search and Rescue vehicles.

Following the cease of fire appliance chassis manufacture in 2007, Dennis can no longer supply Sabres to the brigade, prompting the decision to find a new chassis for new appliances. The Volvo FLL 15 chassis was chosen as a suitable replacement for the Dennis Sabre.