Fire Apparatus Photography

OVERVIEW: Fire Apparatus Photography is a website designed to share detailed information on a wide variety of fire service vehicles and to provide high quality enlargements of individual fire apparatus. The website contains a consolidated database of almost 20,000 individual records of vehicles photographed from throughout the United States with additional listings from Africa, Asia, Europe and South America. The listings include apparatus from federal, state, county, municipal and private fire departments. The principal photographers are Charles "Chuck" Madderom of Bakersfield, California and Shaun Ryan of Austin, Texas. Both individuals have taken fire apparatus photographs since the late 1960’s.

UPDATES: Approximately 600 records have been added to website in 2014 including apparatus photographed in the past year as well as additions from past years’ activities. This has included additions to many of the individual databases within the website. The focus of our additions in 2014 has been in California and Texas although other states and departments have been augmented with additional records as well. The departments from Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Merced, Napa, Placer, and Tulare counties have all been added to as well as units from Arizona and Texas.

OUR PHOTOGRAPHY: The vehicles identified in the various databases were individually photographed. Care has been taken to pose units in sunlight conditions with a minimization of background clutter. The individual records’ information was gleaned at the time of the photography plus the use of records available from other sources. The accuracy of the information is not guaranteed, but is presented as the best available data upon entering the individual records. We welcome corrections, additions or enhancements to any and all of the listings in the website.

DATABASES: The databases are configured in both spreadsheet and HTML formats to enhance searching capabilities. The topical fields include geographic locations, departments, years, chassis, builders, serials, dates of photography and remarks. We hope that the included data is of value to other fire apparatus fans.

ENLARGEMENTS: Enlargements can be provided in color or black and white in a variety of sizes. An order form has been provided for ease of use.

CONTACT: Please direct written correspondence to: Shaun Ryan, 15124 Thatcher Drive, Austin, Texas 78717 and email to: Penethol@AOL.com.