Fire Engines vs. Ladder Trucks

When it comes to fire suppression, the Lexington Fire Department primarily utilizes two types of fire fighting apparatus, engines and ladders. Both of these vehicles are referred to as a "Company". In the case of ladder trucks, the terms "Ladder Company" and "Truck Company" are used intrechangeably to refer to a ladder truck, while the term "Engine Company" refers only to a fire engine.

The major distinctions between an Engine and a Ladder company are:

Engines primarily carry water, hose and a pump.

Ladders primarily carry ladders and a large assortment of tools used for ventilation, rescue, forcible entry, thermal imaging and salvage among other uses. Lexington Ladder Trucks carry a limited supply of hose and may or may not carry water.

In general, the Engine Companies responding to the scene supply water at a fire.

Lexington’s Ladder trucks are equipped with an eighty-five foot aerial device and a compliment of ground ladders of various lengths while Engine Companies come equipped with only a few ground ladders.

While Engine and Ladder companies perform very different firefighting tasks, they do have some commonality:

Engine and Ladder companies are available for various medical and rescue situations since Lexington firefighters are trained as Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT) or Medical Responders (MR) and as Advanced Rescue Technicians (ART).

Each Engine and Ladder Company has a Driver and a Company Officer assigned to it.

An additional 1 to 2 firefighters are assigned to each company. Together, the Officer, Driver and firefighter(s) comprise the "crew" of that particular company.

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