fire engine

noun
1.
a vehicle equipped for firefighting, now usually a motor truck having a motor-driven pump for shooting water or chemical solutions at high pressure.
Also called fire truck.
Origin
1670-80
Examples from the web for fire engine
  • On the other side of the sarcophagus, a large bronze tablet depicts three frenzied horses pulling a fire engine.
  • As if the speaker had the same cruise-through rights as a fire engine or ambulance.
  • The rioters ripped up the garden of a home in their search for brickbats and commandeered a fire engine and a bulldozer.
  • He has worked a tractor-trailer driver and mechanic, a rigger at a fire engine factory, as well as a race-car driver and builder.
  • Inside are an antique fire engine and an interesting exhibit about the desegregation of the fire department.
  • The response of the closest fire engine in an emergency brings trained firefighters to your home or place of business in minutes.
  • Drives the fire engine to wildland fire locations and positions it accordingly.
  • In the meantime, a safety investigation is looking into replacing the other tires on the fire engine.
British Dictionary definitions for fire engine

fire engine

noun
1.
a heavy road vehicle that carries firefighters and firefighting equipment to a fire
Encyclopedia Article for fire engine

mobile (nowadays self-propelled) piece of equipment used in fire fighting. Early fire engines were hand pumps equipped with reservoirs and were moved to the scene of a fire by human or animal power. In large fires, the reservoir was kept filled by a bucket brigade, but the method was inefficient, and the short range of the stream of water necessitated positioning the apparatus dangerously close to the fire. The introduction of more powerful pumps and flexible hose solved this problem, and a great advance was made with the introduction of the steam-powered pump in many large cities in the 19th century. Steam fire engines were used in the Chicago Fire of 1871. A steam engine remained in use by the New York Fire Department as late as 1932

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