116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Time Machine: Yellow firetrucks
Emergency vehicles briefly switched colors in the 1970s
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In the late 1960s and early 1970s, traditional red firetrucks began giving way to yellow ones with a lime green tint.
Research showed that yellow vehicles were more visible than red ones, especially in low visibility conditions.
A New York optometrist, Stephen Solomon, is credited with analyzing firetruck data in 1968. He found yellow trucks were involved in fewer accidents than red ones. As a result, firetruck colors began shifting to the yellow color across the nation.
In the Milwaukee suburb of Hales Corner, Wis., the fire department ordered a yellow truck in January 1969. A private fire department in Scottsdale, Ariz., had a fleet of 35 bright yellow trucks in 1970 covering 1,000 square miles.
In Shorewood, Wis., the village board bought a new yellow truck in March 1971.
In Iowa
The first yellow truck in Eastern Iowa went to the Vinton cooperative rural fire department in September 1972. It was manufactured by Toyne’s Fire Truck Service in Breda in west-central Iowa.
Cedar Rapids’ first yellow firetruck was backed into its stall at the Central Fire Station, 427 First St. SE, in January 1975. Purchased for $47,300, it was also the department’s first diesel truck.
When the old station was replaced by a new Central Fire Station at 222 Third St. NW in December 1985, the lime yellow truck moved, too. The old fire station became part of the new Science Station that opened in August 1986.
Fire departments in Waterloo and Iowa City also opted for the greenish yellow trucks, but Dubuque stayed with red trucks.
Public confusion
The public, accustomed to red fire engines, was somewhat confused by the switch.
Cedar Rapids Fire Chief Edsel McMickle reported that he was driving a new yellow command car when he was hailed by a woman who thought he was driving a taxicab.
Even though firefighters liked features of the new yellow trucks, veteran firefighters never really took to the color change.
Twenty years later, the yellow truck that backed into the First Street station in 1975 was replaced by a bright red truck in 1993.
‘Slime green’
Fire Chief Brud Gorman was not a fan of the color that he referred to as “slime green.”
Gorman, hired as chief from his job as assistant fire chief in Concord, N.H., in 1991, asked his Cedar Rapids firefighters their opinion on the color of firetrucks. They voted for red, so Gorman began slowly reinstating red equipment.
By 1993, 50 percent of the department’s equipment had been replaced with red with a reflective stripe around the trucks.
Gorman also said that none of the studies he had seen had concluded the color of a firetruck had anything to do with accidents.
Assistant Fire Chief Laverne Bagley took a trip to firetruck manufacturer Pierce Manufacturing Co. of Appleton, Wis., and found that most of the trucks produced there were red. The company, however, was open to painting the trucks any color the customer wanted.
Local decision
Firetruck color is up to individual cities and fire departments.
Firefighters are passionate about what is the “right” color for the trucks they drive, according to a 2015 story in the FireRescue1 newsletter. “Regardless of what color fire apparatus is painted,” the article concluded, “the critical factor is how visible it is to other drivers when it is out providing service.”
It was determined reflectors and reflective strips, as well as fluorescent accents and flashing lights, could be just as effective as a firetruck’s color.
Even after the Cedar Rapids firetrucks were back to being red, The Gazette’s auto columnist, Tim Banse, cast his vote in favor of yellow in a 2003 story. In his review of the Subaru WRX, he wrote, “The WRX sport wagon I drove was painted Sonic Yellow. The car looks fast standing still. They should paint fire trucks and ambulances this color.”
About the 1960s study? Later studies confirmed that the lime-yellow color had better visibility than red.
But the studies also found that recognition of emergency vehicles by the public was just as important. If a community didn’t associate lime yellow with emergency vehicles, then the color didn’t make a difference. The newer studies also found reflective striping increased visibility.
A brief online search revealed some yellow firetrucks are still around in Eastern Iowa, in Waukon, Tipton, DeWitt and Marshalltown.
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