B737 Next Generation Undifferentiated
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Situational Awareness; Communication Breakdown; Confusion
Ground Event / Encounter Vehicle
Aircraft Aircraft Damaged; General Flight Cancelled / Delayed; General Maintenance Action
Company Policy; Human Factors
When taxiing to the gate; right as we were making the turn toward the gate it looked as if a fire truck was waiting for the aircraft inbound to the gate next to us. We thought the fire truck looked too close so proceeded with caution. As we started to angle to the gate the guideman gave us a stop signal. I thought great they are going to move the truck. But no; a wing walker ran over by the truck and gave the OK and it did appear that the truck and all its wheels were outside the red line; but it looked very close. I asked my first officer to please keep a close look at it out the right side as we approached. The guideman directed me to proceed and shortly after that; my first officer said 'Stop; the wing walker is signaling to stop.' I applied the brakes and came to a stop even though I was still being given directions to proceed. Then the guideman did give the stop signal once he noticed we had stopped and the wing walker was asking for a stop. FO said; 'wow did that come close.' The truck backed up then drove off and we proceeded to the gate. We ran the after landing checklist; said good bye to passengers and then went to ops. We had a 2.5 hour sit so the FO said he was going to take a quick nap in the break room. I was in ops and heard someone looking for the crew. I asked if they were looking for the inbound or outbound. It was us they were looking for because there had been contact with the scimitar. This was the first we had heard of it.
[Report narrative contained no additional information.]
B737 flight crew reported making contact with a fire truck while being guided into the gate. Damage was not immediately evident; however the wingtip scimitar was found to be damaged.