Strangest Firetruck I Have Ever Seen.

today, i saw a firetruck in front of my house so i went out to inspect it. i took a lot of pictures of what was happening but i got this video, of them just putting water onto a little part of road in front of my house for no reason. it was the weirdest thing i have ever seen. if you have any idea what you think they are doing please tell me. thanks. i asked the cop that was parked at the bottom of my driveway and he said they were filming a commercial. i have no idea what this was doing.

[@gizmotwadlebutt]

90% of the comments are just odd like a bunch of teens posted them. No it's not a strange fire truck, it's a tanker or tender (a truck that hauls water to where no water supply is available). Your right it's not a fire truck, It's technically a "fire apparatus". No they aren't checking pumps because dumps use gravity. Yes some have water jet assistance this one either doesn't or they aren't using the jet assist, So not checking the pump. So many reasons to dump the water like this. Stinky water from a nasty water source, work on tank or valves, work on chassis, tires or like was said driving a long distance with half a tank sloshing around but most of the time we fill there, unless the water system in burdened. . To the guy that says it wears out tires... really? We just sold a tanker we bought new 20 years ago. The tires looked brand new and had never been replaced. We cover 100 square miles. If you bring a empty tank to a fire why bother bringing a tanker? The whole point is to bring a load of water. If you are saying after the fire you bring a empty truck back? God knows fires never happen back to back. I would hate to be the person on the radio saying "Well I will be enroute as soon as we find a place to fill the truck with water, We don't want to wear out tires." Sigh :/

[@caleb5966]

Correct

[@richardmarshall9503]

we had a 20 year old brush truck (GMC 3500) it only had 8,000 miles on it. 3 speed and 350 V8 and no A/C. Nobody wanted to drive it, unless it was needed on a fire scene.

[@brettamelia3281]

Thank you for saying this. No one understands

[@texasbmx246]

Read the description, the cop said they were shooting a commercial. My guess would be a car commercial, they look good on wet roads.

[@dp8487]

We have a similar set of tankers on our department. We fill out of lakes regularly, so will often change out the water from time to time to keep it from stagnating, especially if we don't run a call for a while involving the tankers. If your township owns the truck it could have been watering for a sweeper or to get sand off of the road, thats my best guess

[@CodyFirestone]

I've served on these all the time in California as a Fire Fighter. The tender drives up and drops a big temporary tank, which it drop fills. and the engines fight the fire from this water as the tender rushes back to a water source and refills. Hopefully you are able to move enough water to keep the temporary tank "full" and you fight the fire. Kinda like fighting a fire from a Swimming Pool.

[@dts642]

When my department gets done helping at an out of county fire we dump our water and run light back to town.

[@lytken]

+dts642 what a stupid waste of water

[@bfirefighter3]

+lytken Water is way cheaper than fuel, and pollutes a whole lot less...

[@dts642]

+lytken The weight puts a bunch of stress on the tires. We will sometimes have to drive more than 50 miles to respond to a fire. The tires on our truck are $500-$600 each and the cost of replacing them is a burden on a small Volunteer Fire Department like mine.

[@dts642]

+bfirefighter3 Not to mention the cost of tires. Ours are $500-600 each. We have one Fire Department to cover 1400 square miles. Needless to say we will cover 50 miles sometimes just getting to the fire. The weight of the water kills out tires.

[@T_Rav27]

+lytken not to mention that running with a half load is extremely dangerous! You either run full or if you can't then you run empty. Running with half a tank will cause the water to move violently and increase the odds of rolling the truck. Personal and public safety are higher priorities than dumping water back on the ground.

[@chrisadams5567]

thats not strange at all that tender is just discharging from the quick dump to prevent tank problems and the quick dumps are also for other purposes also

[@nationsbravest]

Many directors like to have a wet roadway to shoot car commercials -- in order to reflect light onto the underside of the vehicle. The tanker is doing a dump and roll along the route that has been planned out for the shot. A regular pumper cannot move when pumping, and it carries much less water.

[@bradleyknoblock]

I have couple of thoughts here, 1) they could be emptying the water to de-mineralize the tank and fittings, we do as preventative maintenance for the pumps on the trucks. We dump it on the road because its not only easier, but better than pouring all that water on the ground. We also use the tanks, as well as silos to train in confined spaces. (you dont train for cold water rescue in a hot tub, same idea). Obviously some pre-training is completed prior to this.

[@PAW4960]

It's simple, its a tanker. We have a neighboring station with a truck like that. And if the police office told you the were filming a commercial, they were probably filming the rate that the water flows out of the chutes. As a volunteer firefighter myself, i know how important it is to have optimum water flow in an emergency situation, so more than likely that is what they are doing, just to demonstrate it.

[@scafativ]

A possible explanation: That truck is a pumper/tender, and has a huge tank. It is dangerous to drive when it is half full, because the sloshing water can cause it to handle erratically, so many departments require the remaining water to be dumped out before returning to the station, if they don't use it all. It can dump from the sides or back, in order to fill up what is called a "portable tank", which is used to temporarily hold water at a fire scene.

[@Cha0sSt0rm]

To anyone saying that they are dumping the water so it doesn't slosh around... I'd have thought that there would be baffles in the tanks (thin walls to segment the water) to stop it sloshing too much? I don't disbelieve you, just surprised that there isn't a baffle system / swash partitions in the tanks.

[@OSUCop]

While they may very well have been doing a commercial, this is an elliptical tank truck that likely has no baffles to keep water from shifting which could actually overturn the truck. So, you either run it completely full or empty. If they had dumped a partial load of water at a scene, they need to empty the truck before they can safely drive it.

[@ptg4n6]

This truck is called a TENDER. It is for water transport in areas that are not covered by hydrant water supply, They are most common in rural areas and forested areas. They also carry portable water tanks, that can be deployed at structure fires for additional water supply if necessary for additional engine companys. FYI: In the fire service a "TANKER" is an aircraft . This piece of apparatus is a "TENDER.

[@OHWRDAMI1]

For the record you don't put water on a road as a fire break. Asphalt doesn't burn at the temps that brush fires produce. In the event of a brush fire in the area. You put agricultural sprinklers on the roof and wet down the surrounding area, by doing this you raise the humidity and create a mirco-climate that most brush / forest fires will go around.

[@vitomanzione1398]

This truck is called a tanker, we use tankers in our area because it has rural areas without hydrants. The tankers or tenders as some call them are the main water supply for the engines on scene. If it's a big fire it's common to see 5 or 6 tankers doing what they call tanker shuttles.

[@SideStreetLeather]

The police officer was right. Ever notice that all the road in car commercials are a nice dark black? It's not cause they repaved the road just for the commercial. They are always a little wet to get that look.

[@firebrigade101]

What is strange about a tanker perging water, engines, latters and all water bearing units do this in one form or another.

[@Duo090Productions]

It's a tanker truck, our stations and most other stations call it "Tanker" they hold around 5,000 gallons of water and they are brought to huge fires as a back up water supply. The truck was just emptying it's load, surprised you never saw it, they're very common.

[@disabldfirefiter]

this is a water tanker, also known in some areas as a tender. it has chutes to quickly dump the tank water into portable tanks used to pump from in areas where there are no hydrants or other water supply. the chutes to the back & sides allow the operator to back up to a port-a-tank or to pull up beside it to dump the water. the tanker will then go to a supply point to refill, often 1/4 to 1 mile away.

[@Mortthelefty430]

For safety purposes you NEVER run a tanker/tender unless it is full or empty. They may be dumping the excess water from the tank before going to refill.

[@richardmarshall9503]

Correct, we also dump the tank, before any equipment goes into the shop for repairs, or even an oil change service.

[@nsrailfann4life91]

@TF79Swain Depends. On older tankers, the water did slosh around alot, but on these newer tankers, they have baffles in the tank that prevent the water from doing such. However, loaded tankers are still a pain. Makes for a very slow trip up hills and harder to stop downhill.

[@resqjason2]

the vehicle is a tanker used to shuttle water to areas that dont have hydrants. it has ports on both sides and the rear for dumping water into portable tanks at the fire so they can go refill wherever they can and come back to the fire. as for them dumping water on the road, when filming TV or other videos its common to have the road washed down to reduce dust that would interfere with the filming. watch any tv commercial and youll notice that most of the time the road is a little wet.

[@drewsmith5675]

This is a Tender, tankers are the ones that fly... and what they are doing is laying what is called a wet line. the function of a wet line is to get the road and the grass on both sides of the road wet so that when the fire reaches that area it will be unable to "Jump" the road and reach the other side. essentially it eliminates the fuel.

[@Rdrake1413]

I have installed those on firetrucks. It is a way for them to rapidly dump water from the tank.

[@sockettuem]

It's called a tanker and is used to shuttle water to a fire scene where hydrants are not available. This is typically the case in rural settings. If I had to guess, they were probably flushing the tank. If not that, then they were watering the weeds, a much more doubtful scenario.

[@TheSouthernGun]

Our fire department sometimes gets asked by the township to dump water along a road to test the road's stormwater system while engineers observe the runoff into the sewer. Something like that could have been happening here.

[@drweelz]

they were not wetting the road for a commercial and they were certainly not rinsing chemicals into the ditch, they were practicing water shuttles, the only reason these trucks exist is in rural areas where there are no fire hydrants, we have to use whatever resources we can find to fill these trucks to deliver water to the fire scene,(ponds,rivers,swimming pools) in our station we work in platoons so each platoon would practice at least one run, thats why you saw them do this multiple times.

[@ovidado]

assuming they were going to film a car commercial, the wet pavement would look better on camera. It would be darker, more saturated in color, and could give off a cool reflection.

[@onebradh]

those shoots on the back and side are to fill a portable Pond at the scene of a structure fire.. thier called Quick Dumps so they can go refill the truck and the scene still has water

[@kurtdog119]

No sir. It is technically a tender, as txarsoncop says. A tanker is a plane used for airdrops of water during wildland fires for NIMS compliance. Ever see the California wildfires? If not, they use air tankers there to assist in dropping off water from the air right onto the fire as assistance to the tenders on the ground.

[@FuzzySocks902]

This is a water tender/tanker. (Depending on your location it can be called either) If they were filming a commercial I can only assume that they needed a wet road for it and used this apparatus to put the water on the road.

[@neesnueht]

This is called preventative maintenance. That street won't burn for AT LEAST the next 6 hours.

[@KirouChan]

My bf is like "it's not weird it's a firetruck" (he is a firefighter) I'm like "I never seen that b4 soo it hella weird o-o;". Then we fought ova how much of a smartass he is :D

[@DIVEINST1]

This is a Tanker or Tender depends where you are from. The Red "thing" on the side is a porta-tank. It is placed in front of the engine and is used to hold water. This way the tanker can dump all of it's contents at once and go refill while the engine uses the the water. Where the water is coming out are quick dumps. they are 12" square and allow the water to drain in a matter of seconds. They don't all have to be used at once. We have a 2000g and a 6000 gallon super tanker (tractor trailer).

[@mozzmann]

Fire Tanker Trucks like this are used for RAR (Road Accident Rescue) wash downs often too, with temporary bund walls used to trap the water which is usually mopped up with a Vacuum truck after the fire crews have washed down the accident scene. trapping oils detergents chemicals etc to be dealt with safely.

[@brandonmikes]

For all thoses who said tanker is wrong. It's a tender and yes it supplies water to places with no hydrants or helps out a hydrant that's under pressure. Now why they were dumping water like that I don't know maybe the dept. ask them to.

[@goob1818]

Actually, there are baffles in that tank. some OLD tanks may not have baffles, but the newer ones do for safety purposes. That's not an old truck. Also, I have never heard of a department that requires drivers to "dump the remaining water" unless its very dirty, pool water, or muddy. At least not in Georgia.

[@northbendsk8]

they were filming a commercial, by putting water on the road way it makes the car reflect and stand out from the wet road, our volunteer engine used to go out and we'd hose the road right before the commercial to give it more appealing look on tv.

[@imprezzed42296]

In fire department applications tankers mostly carry water, and some carry foam and water. Some can even be Rescue Tankers. It all depends on what they're fitted for. Types range from former milk trucks with lights on them, to 18-wheel ex-gasoline tankers, to purpose built fire apparatus. My small city has it's own purpose built (I think it's an E-One) tanker which will respond to areas that don't have hydrant coverage. They'll fill up from a hydrant or even a pond, then go to the scene.

[@mike84x22]

it dumps its water to head back to the station after a call like that to reduce weight. keep in mind that water weighs 8.5 pounds per gallon and my best guess is that water tender holds around 3000 gallons ( thats what my deparment tender holds and its very similar in size). thats 25,000 thousand pounds.

[@FireBoy693]

If it was a commercial, it was to show how their ability to make a firebreak. Usually the would use foam so the fire could not spread past a desired point.

[@Hobbitchoker]

Real Reason: To keep your tanker from getting nasty on the inside, you have to change the water. Just like water bottles, you leave them sitting to long, they tend to build up sediments that you won't drink. To much sediment and it kills your pump/nozzle. They are just emptying out their tank. We have to do it every so often in our tanker.

[@SLOBoe]

WETTING DOWN ROAD FOR FILMING COMMERCIAL. Water makes the road look nice and black and is very frequently done for car commercials. The back of the water tender has what is called a 'quick dump' that can empty the whole truck in a hurry. This truck can dump to the rear or either side (or all three, in this case). The purpose is to be able to transport a load of water and dump it into a portable tank, then go get another load while firefighters draw off the tank.

[@jacobmarshall7138]

depends on what part of the country your in but for the most part, east of the Mississippi- a tanker west call it a tinder

[@randyo.bowling1907]

In Ark. we also call it a tanker!! s/Ass't. Chief (ret'd) Randy O. Bowling Twin Groves VFD, ARK.

[@ohioisgreat1976]

I Have A Couple Of Ideas.. 1- The Firefighter Was Emptying The Tank 2- To Make It Look Like It Rained For The Commercial? 3- Idk!

[@richardjj23]

Apparently someone has never seen a tanker before. And the side dump valves are so you can pull right beside the port a tank and dump and go. Without having to waste time trying to maneuver around the scene

[@tswoodall4419]

When you drive a tanker, it's either full or completely empty. If you drive with it half full you run the risk of the water displacing itself to one side in a curve and in doing so run the risk of rolling it over. To me it looks like they are making sure it's empty before returning to the station. Just my two cents.

[@resqjason2]

that is correct! it also knocks the dust off the roadway so the air is nice and clear in the footage

[@trentsmillmansion1]

According to NIMS it is technically called a tender, however, they have been called tankers so long in many departments that the name has stayed. I'm still not sure why he would be dumping his water on the road...find it hard to believe that a fire Dept would want a de-icing agent in a tanker (tender :-) , but that's almost what it looks like unless he's trying to create an I've rink on the road.

[@PulledOutAgain]

it is also possible that his truck does not have baffles in the tank. he could be dumping a partial load so that the water does not cause his truck to roll over while going around a corner or making a sharp turn. on my department we drive our trucks either with a completely empty tank or completely full, no partial tanks. Also that is an interesting fact about the film industry, i did not know they did that.

[@DC0C0]

@camerongoll They are using the truck to wet the road for the commercial. This truck is normally used to transport water to fires in areas without fire hydrants.

[@GEN711]

It's actually a Tanker. It is used in rural area's where hydrants do not exist. Scafativ is also correct with the reason for dumping. Another reason however is to clean the roadway after an accident.

[@txarsoncop]

A LOT of the replies here have been only PARTIALLY correct. Elliptical tanks DO have baffles, NFPA requires them. Any modern Tender SHOULD be able to be driven with ANY level of water in it safely. Drivers trained in Tender Ops is the key. And 'Tankers', as I grew up in the fire service with, are to be referred to as 'Tenders' now so as not to be cornfused with the Tankers used for air drops during wildland fires for NIMS compliance. We resist change as always but water on wheels = Tender.

[@capman911]

Quote: I have no idea what this was doing. I asked the cop that was parked at the bottom of my driveway and he said they were filming a commercial. What part don't you people understand? DUH lol

[@OHWRDAMI1]

As explained before this tender / (water) tanker fire truck is used in rural areas where immediate access to a fire hydrant is not available. On the side of the truck that rectangular area is where the fold out tank stores. Its folds out to about a medium sized above ground pool. Now something to keep an eye out for. In commercials and movies you wet the road to give you a nice reflective surface. It maximizes that available light and for car commercials it causes light to shimmer on the paint.

[@TheNjones37]

Dude, they soak the ground to show how good a car's traction is with certain tires.

[@URMOM0504]

Looks like a Tanker. Rural areas usually have these when there is no water near by or any fire hydrants. My FD has 2.

[@bbrune8769]

I've seen trucks like these spraying water and it turns out it's salt water, works good for melting black ice quickly.

[@smitty446]

what they are doing is making the road wet to help reflect the lighting to help with the picture so it isn't as dark.

[@KCSmokeator22]

You either drive the tanker completely full or completely empty. It probably was partially empty so they were dumping the rest out so it wouldnt be hazardous to drive Do not ever ask a cop what the fire department is doing. They will never know.

[@marcsalas9236]

its a tanker, it's the water drain on the back that allows water to come out to fill up a pond so firefighters and firetrucks can draft(get water) from it! its not how they actually pump water to put out a fire if that's what you were thinking lol

[@wfrankwalshiv]

There also may have been a brush fire near by. The road acts as a firebreak and they are probably just hosing it down to keep flames from jumping to the other side.

[@TF79Swain]

Its a tanker or tender, depending on what part of the country you live in they are called different. He most likely is dumping the rest of his water after a call becuase he still had half a tank left. Those are not fun to drive back to the station half full, water swashes around in the tank and makes turning a little difficult, so we dump whats left

[@mikerossiter6223]

I've seen ex-firetrucks cruising the secondary highways of southwestern Ontario, with a conveniently leaking valve, pissing rainbow sheen puddles onto the roads. Sometimes sticky and sometimes slippery.

[@MattSwinden]

They were empyting water off the "pump" not out of the tank. In most areas, the pump is kept dry and after operations it is drained.

[@MattSwinden]

FF931, I was not referring to the vid, but to NBFD about taking water off the pump after a fire. As for the vid, no idea why the tender is "watering" the street, other than to empy it. Some department's SOP is to have a completely empy tank vs a partially full one on tenders while driving.

[@EJSchroeder]

If the tanker had used some of its water it needs to empty the rest before driving at 20+ mph to avoid a rollover. When the tank is not empty or full the water can slosh around during turns. If it didnt empty it would increase the trucks chance of rolling over.

[@leafsrule1234]

@MrDantastic27 That is a Tanker, I am a firefighter and I would know. See the big tank on the back...thats a give away. A Tender is pretty well the same thing but used in other countries like Germany for Forest Fires. Not called a Tender over here. And Tankers don't fly? In short story, what you see in the video is a Tanker. It looks to be just dumping its water for a specific reason, on the fire service dumping your water it usually goes into a Porta-Pond so it can be drafted into the pumper.

[@FIREMENEMT3]

Its called a tanker and it carries a shit load of water. Their best use is for a brush fire or an MCI fire incident where the rigs can get as much water as possible and thats what the tankers are used for.

[@vikingpiper]

It's a tender. A tanker has wings. We use tenders when we don't have a plug to hook up to or when we need water shuttle operations. If they were filming something involving this apparatus, still not sure what or why, and why they were demonstrating the dump chutes. Stop in at the firehouse and ask them, best bet.

[@Cryptonymicus]

This was probably a case of high radiation from solar flares igniting vented gases from the pavement and causing what we call in the trade, "invisible fire." Fortunately it doesn't affect fire trucks so you can safely run a tanker over it and drown it.

[@nfs3fan2]

Odds are they ended up filling it up when they got back to the station. even the engines (or pumper as you refer to it) have water tanks on them. you need water kept in them so that way you can put a small fire out without having to hook up to a hydrent. By any chance had they not disconnected the hoses from hydrent to the engine? what you may have seen was the over flow from where they were refilling the tank. it can look like they were dumping it when actually filling it instead.

[@imphoa]

you have led a sheltered life if this is the strangest.

[@shadow200196]

you can also use them in suburban settings too

[@MegaBigboi9999]

he is obviously watering the road to make sure that it gets the vital nutrient necessary for pavement photosynthesis

[@farmtruck551]

my guess is that, like the cop said they were filming a commerical, maybe for something along the lines of dirver saftey on wet roads. or icy roads if it was cold when this happened

[@ffhawk1]

@soundsofchewelah its still a firetruck. a tender (or tanker depending on where you are from) is a specialized firetruck designed for transporting large quantites of water from a source to a fire

[@polrais850xp]

Thank You!! I'm happy that some one know's what there talking about, Stay safe ~Chuck, Hanover FD Colorado.

[@MrGeek1341]

@ TheTharpa it is a firetruck its called a tanker mainly used for brush fires to get extra water in the scene where there may not be a place for the engine to hook up to

[@Fanik10]

my mother told me that that's how I said Fire Truck as a baby, lol.

[@Serenation]

I know with our Tanker units. You can only travel on the road either completely full or completely empty. He might be just getting rid of the water left in the tank before going back to station.

[@TrillBill]

This is a tender truck..they aren't technically fire trucks.They supply fire engines with water when there are no fire hydrents around.

[@thedish5]

I have heard of FDs using wet streets as firebreaks, in case of a forest/brush fire. Wet the roads, and the fire embers wont spread to the other side.

[@R5H4D0W]

I think only tankers hauling hazardous liquids must have baffles as a compliance to DOT regulation. For all other tankers, its not a requirement.

[@TheHarris2202]

its a tanker that has 3 different discharges in the back and they probably refilled at a hydrent with very dirty water so they dumped all the water out, or they are just doing it for the hell of it hahaha

[@FCSchalke77]

Those trucks are for cleaning spillages left on the road, it is basically cleaning debre or another liquid, either fuel or oil off of the road with the water ...

[@100mpgus]

they almost always film car commercials with a wet road, it looks cooler.

[@Patman252]

Yeah either he had half a tank and he's dumping it for safety reasons, or during a fire they may have been using water from a lake, pond or river. In that case you want to dump that water out before parking the truck in the station because the organic material in natural water can make things nasty

[@ANMLgaming]

actually its a rare fire that happens on roads that only ricky bobby can see...

[@OldLordSpeedy]

Exactly - some comercial ad videos needs wet streets if they filmed. Stupid if it a dry street and the movie needs a wet street. So they ask at next fire station please can helps them. So they do it.

[@LICHBKLYN1]

+OldLordSpeedy Very true. I see it all the time in L.A., and including at the hospital I worked at, for filming a movie.

[@tiger2338]

Right you are Jesse. That is a tanker. North Bay FD has two of them. They are used on rural calls to ferry water.

[@Fire615Rescue]

And as for what they are doing in this video, obviously the cop said its for a commercial- so im not sure what you don't understand about that. But I guess I will break it down for you. Apparently somebody came to the fire department and said "hey guys, I would like to make a commercial, but I need the road wet for this commercial. If we make a donation to your department, will you be willing to come out and wet the road for us?" and the fire department officer said "sure" and ta da....

[@Channel51_LA]

@thedish5 with all due respect, that doesn't make much sense. Embers are carried by the wind and cause spot fires regardless if a street is wet or not.

[@N728BS]

I've always heard "tanker". Besides, the term isn't exclusive to any one thing - it can refer to any tank-laden vehicle, from trucks, to planes, to ships.

[@mcclurefirechief]

Our dept had to do that exact thing while we were experiencing transmission problems. We dumped the water to get weight off the truck so we could get the tender towed. Also we still call them tankers on the firegound but during forestry training I ordered two additional tankers and got two airplanes......LOL.......thank god it was only training.........I would have felt like a real ass :)

[@Slow_Hand_Luke]

Whatever this vehicle is supposed to be called: a Tanker or a "Chicken" Tender, the way it's releasing water would be good for flushing gasoline from roads before it caught Fire....

[@dmattison4]

not sure what they're doing im a firefighter and i can't think why they'd be dumping the entire tanker on the road but what gobo760 says could be possible but its hard to say

[@JustinTrev]

I'am just gessing but do you think they are trying to get the Oil off the road?

[@ke5ocu]

It may be because, if they use so much water, they will dumb the tank because it is dangerous to drive with 1/2 a tank slashing in the back. I know on our department, our SOP's say if we use more than 1/2 a tank, to empty before we drive back, espicially if you don't have baffles in the back ethier.

[@nfs3fan2]

please don't take offense to this, because it isn't directed at you personally, but that's the dumbest thing i've ever heard. that's just like a soldier going out on patrol with an unloaded weapon.