page_title: Fire appliances in the United Kingdom
section_title: Fire Investigation Unit
hierarchical_section_title: Fire appliances in the United Kingdom / Public fire and rescue services / Fire Investigation Unit
caption_attribution_description: English: London fire investigation van.
context_page_description: Fire services in the United Kingdom use a variety of fire appliances, which perform a wide range of general and specialised roles and fit into several distinct categories. Contemporary fire appliances carry a multitude of equipment and firefighting media to deal with different types of emergencies ranging from fires, rescues, vehicle extrication, floods, salvage, casualty and trauma care.
  The design and size of a fire appliance depends very much upon the role it is expected to perform. In general, most fire and rescue services use a standardised range of vehicles and equipment. However, airport fire services tend to use much larger and heavier appliances than those typically deployed by public fire services.
  Common fire appliance manufacturers and suppliers in the UK include Dennis, Scania, Volvo, HCB Angus, JDC, EmergencyOne, Angloco and Carmichael. Most front line fire appliances in the UK are marked in high conspicuity red and yellow battenburg markings, and are fitted with blue lights and sirens. Many appliances have roller shutter doors revealing compartments housing various items of equipment.
context_section_description: A Fire Investigation Unit (FIU) attends fires and incidents where the cause is thought to be suspicious, and is crewed by specially trained experts, acting in assistance to police investigations. It may take the form of a car or van.
  Some brigades may also use specially trained search dogs. At the scene of incidents, the dog wears specialist protective 'fire wellies' on his or her paws to guard against injuries from broken glass or hot material. The dogs can detect minute quantities of hydrocarbon accelerants within minutes. This procedure would normally take a human investigator - using specialist equipment - much longer, before samples can be taken away for scientific analysis.
caption: A London FIU
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