The term "fire truck" is commonly used as a generic expression to describe a fire-fighting vehicle. Technically, a "fire truck" is a vehicle equipped with ladders and is used mainly to gain access to elevated portions of a structure or to provide a means of applying an elevated stream of water. "Fire engine" is a vehicle with a pump and is used primarily to pump water. A "fire wagon" carries large amounts of hose and is primarily used to lay hose as a complement to a pumper. "Fire apparatus" is the proper generic term for all of these vehicles. This entry will focus on the manufacture of a fire engine. From our first toys and books as toddlers to the everyday newscasts showing fire fighters in action, the fire apparatus remains one of the most familiar and impressive examples of technology in our lives. Uncontrolled fire was one of the greatest fears until quite recently. Early attempts to quell fires were merely bucket brigades, that is, lines of citizens handing water buckets to the fire, which was often ineffective against a fully involved building. Some attempts at increased water application were hand-operated piston pumps whose hoses pumped water from a holding tank or a pond. (These early hoses were made of leather with copper rivets; cotton hoses came into use in the 1800s.) Eventually wheels were added to the apparatus, but it was still pulled and operated by the firemen. Volunteer fire departments were established to man the equipment and fight the fire.

With the appearance of property insurance, insurance companies created fire departments and spent considerable time improving the fire apparatus. By the 1860s, the steam engine was used to operate the piston pump, and it was pulled to the fire by horses. Other attempts to pressurize the hoseline were chemical tanks, which used acid combined with soda dissolved in water to start a chemical reaction that would produce carbon dioxide. In this process, the carbon dioxide expanded, pressurizing the tank and propelling the entire mixture out of the hoseline and onto the fire. All of these designs were practically obsolete after the introduction of the centrifugal pump in early 1900. After the advance of the automobile, the internal combustion engine became the primary power source for the fire engine. Adaptation of the truck frame to accommodate the pump and tank completed the transition to the presentday fire truck apparatus.