Montgomery County ESD 1

"Why are your Fire Trucks blue?"

Recently, we sat down with our county Fire Marshal, Jimmy Williams, who was also a member of the department for 37 years, to talk about his career.  This question in particular came up and he was able to give us this answer.

In 1981, Willis Volunteer Fire Department and Panorama Volunteer Fire Department joined together to form the North Montgomery County Volunteer Fire Department.  At the time, North Montgomery County Fire Department was referred to as “the rainbow Fire Department”, due to its collection of apparatus that were red, white, and lime green.  The newly formed department needed to purchase another truck, and the Board began discussions as to what color it should be.  The department had an annual budget of only $70,000, so a used truck was purchased from Whitman Square Fire Company in New Jersey, Washington Township.  When the truck arrived, it was Sierra Blue and the combined Board loved the color.  Now, 37 years later, our trucks are all blue!!  We get recognized everywhere we go, and get so many compliments on the uniqueness of the light blue color of our Apparatus.  That’s how we became nicknamed the “Smurfs”.  So, next time you see us driving around town, look for the firefighting smurf on the back of some of our trucks!