Vitalite on Engine.

Skulldigger

Member
Aug 23, 2015
1,739
Georgia / USA
The wife and I were passing through a small town in Georgia and I saw this old engine sitting in front of their fire station. The rear lights caught my attention and we turned around to take a look. First time I have seen Vitalites in actual use on something.

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Phillyrube

Member
May 21, 2010
1,272
Flatistan
Those appear to be the only warning lights on the entire apparatus. I see they also didn't invest in one of those "Keep Back 200 Feet" signs and just use a few cinder blocks on the back step, that fall off randomly to keep people from following too closely.
My first dashlight, bought it from a retiring constable.

It was not unknown for a hose spanner to fly off the back....

Intersting light setup, crowned by a Vitalite. Moses Lake, WA

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Phillyrube

Member
May 21, 2010
1,272
Flatistan
I remember that the Navy had some fire trucks in the early 70s, commercial cab, with two Vitalites mounted to the roof. It looked funny becasue the roof lines cocked the lights to the side.

I used to have a book authored by the chief of the Navy's fire departments, had a lot of great pictures in it. Can't find it after the move.

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Skulldigger

Member
Aug 23, 2015
1,739
Georgia / USA
Based on the vintage of the lights, and the way they are mounted, the lights on the original post truck are not original to the truck.

I thought the label looked pretty modern. They said this truck was taken out of service about 1974 or 76. They put it out front preparing for the towns Halloween festival. Probably let the kids play on it.

Those appear to be the only warning lights on the entire apparatus.

Other than two flashers on the front, it does appear so. This is an extremely small town, their response area of it's time was probably 1 or 2 square miles. Probably averaged about 12 calls a year.



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cmb56

Member
May 22, 2010
746
Norrköping, Sweden
My guess is that they removed the emergency equipment when they retired the truck but if it is used as an amusement piece they installed the Vitalites at a later date so the kids have something fun to look at.

Michael
 

stansdds

Member
May 25, 2010
3,533
U.S.A., Virginia
From the late 1960's and well into the 1980's, Vitalite's were a big part of warning devices on fire apparatus operated by Henrico County, VA. The typical arrangement would be a Dietz 211 on the roof, Vitalites at the corners of the front bumper and Vitalites on either end of the rear hold bar.

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Nolines

Member
Apr 5, 2018
1,678
Margate, FL
From the late 1960's and well into the 1980's, Vitalite's were a big part of warning devices on fire apparatus operated by Henrico County, VA. The typical arrangement would be a Dietz 211 on the roof, Vitalites at the corners of the front bumper and Vitalites on either end of the rear hold bar.

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A beautiful Oren, it reminds me of the one I co owned with some friends a 74 but it didn't have any of those cept maybe the lights on either side of the siren, ours had Mars lights on the roof on both sides I forget what our center roof light was, and it was a faded out yellow. Ahhh..
 

kitn1mcc

Member
May 24, 2010
2,566
Old lyme ct
i was watching emergency last night when they went to Seattle and the ambulance had vitalights on front fender
 

CrownVic97

Member
May 21, 2010
3,350
Hazen, ND
I believe Seattle used Unity RV 15s on their fenders. Nice Kenworth rigs
I can confirm this. We have a local classic vehicle collector in my home county, and he took delivery on a 1969 Kenworth pumper truck from Seattle FD. All the red lenses were gone per the strict guidelines the fire department set for the sale of the truck to a civilian. So, in addition to a lense-less Federal 12X TwinSonic, it had 3 dome-less RV15s, two of which were mounted on the fenders like y'all said, Coop, and one sole amber RV15 on the back passenger side with it's dome-less sibling on the back driver's side. He wound up pulling the beacons and giving them to me in exchange for a decent pair of red lenses for the TwinSonic I managed to scrouge up, polish, and install for him. I kept the amber RV15 for my collection, the other 3 I re-domed with NOS amber Dietz domes from an Ebay auction that fit the Unity brand and use those for volunteers' vehicles during bike races or triathlons I help out with in Bismarck.
 
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