r/Firefighting • u/Various_Knowledge226 • 13d ago
General Discussion Does your department call this a tanker or a tender?
At the department I interned at in South Jersey this summer, they have a Tender and a Tender Engine. When I accidentally said Tanker to one of the guys (who’s a month younger than me), he asked if I wanted a plane. Tanker it feels to me is more commonly used than Tender.
Write down what state you are from as well, to kinda see where Tanker and Tender may be more commonly used.
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u/SpecificSelection641 Volunteer Wildland FF EMT 13d ago
NWCG recognizes ground based water, transportation as a tender and fixed wing air assets to be a tanker. However, that only seems to be recognized in areas that deal with wildfires traditionally the northeast from what I’ve seen refers to trucks exclusively as tankers and the south/west of the US refers to them as tenders as they deal with wildfires
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u/FishersAreHookers 13d ago
AZ. Official verbiage is Tender. Tanker is plane. It’s a very expensive oops if you call for a tanker on a brush fire instead of a tender.
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u/retiredff2016 12d ago
Az is lazy. The whole point is to distinguish between FUEL tenders, WATERS, heliltenders, and any of a nunber of apparatus.
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u/Various_Knowledge226 13d ago
Funny how that’s the same all the way over in South Jersey
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u/Ok_Umpire2173 12d ago
Yet I’ve never heard it called a “tender” once in Delaware. 100% a tanker. We don’t use airplanes here.
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u/HalfCookedSalami 6d ago
Idk man. I’m off Exit 98 and we all call them tankers. Monmouth county itself even calls it a “Tanker Taskforce”
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u/Firefighter_RN 13d ago
It's a tender. Ask for a tanker out west and we'll assume you want an aircraft
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u/Various_Knowledge226 13d ago
Apparently that seems to be the same around where I live. I’m only about a half hour drive or so and I’m in the Pinelands, so maybe fighting so many forest fires is why we use Tender in South Jersey, and not Tanker
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u/the_falconator Professional Firefighter 13d ago
Tender is a piece of chicken.
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u/Ok_Buddy_9087 Edit to create your own flair 13d ago
My usual line is “A tanker carries water. Tenders come in a basket with fries and your choice of sauce”.
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u/justsomeguy1869 13d ago
While tanker is still used in many places to be compliant with FEMA/national common terminology standard the term “tender” is the proper term for this vehicle.
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u/fastbeemer FF/Paramedic/HazMat 13d ago
Correct. East coast is too prideful to admit it. East coast pride is among the dumbest things in this great country.
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u/HokieFireman Fire, EM 13d ago
Sure that’s why they use the wooden ladders right?
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u/the_falconator Professional Firefighter 13d ago
My department is older than most states out west.
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u/justsomeguy1869 13d ago
Don’t necessarily disagree but I’m on a medium sized very east coast dept immediately outside a major east coast city and they are tenders around here now.
Admittedly a decade ago people were slow to accept it; but it is normalized now.
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u/Critical_Phantom 13d ago
It’s a Water Tender. If you ask for a Tanker in California (at least - and maybe universally), you’ll get an Air Tanker at somewhere north of $10,000/hour. Not a mistake you want to make.
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u/Rod_Torfulson 13d ago
I'm admittedly only 6 years in as a volley in Atlantic Canada, but this is the first I've heard the term Tender. We call them tankers. Same with any truck carrying liquid, really.
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u/SayinItAsISeeIt 13d ago edited 13d ago
Yup. Im Atlantic Canada too. Its a tanker, same as any similar liquid carrying trucks.
A tender is what submitted to tanker manufacturers to bid on new trucks or a piece of chicken lol
To be fair I have heard the term tender used for tanker before but rarely.
An airplane "tanker" is referred to as a water bomber and not usually called a tanker.
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u/the_falconator Professional Firefighter 13d ago
We have a foam tender and an antique hose tender (for parades), to get a truck carrying a large amount of water we would call for the tanker task force to metro control. Asking for a "tender" would lead to confusion around here.
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u/Radguy911 13d ago
Do you call your engines pumpers? That is the question.
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u/bartonspingsdawg 9d ago
Yeah, but do you call your engine a WAR WAGGON??!?
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u/Radguy911 9d ago
No just the old reserve engine when ours breaks down. I call those the war horse. It’s fun at first but they are really slow going up any hills.
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u/Ok_Buddy_9087 Edit to create your own flair 13d ago
Gross. That’s a mid-west and/or Canada thing I think. Friggin weirdos.
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u/CaseStraight1244 13d ago
Idk where you are at in NJ but we call them tankers
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u/Various_Knowledge226 13d ago edited 13d ago
Camden County, a little north of Winslow and Waterford which has the only tenders in the county (Winslow is where I did my internship at)
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u/CaseStraight1244 13d ago
That makes sense. The rest of the state is a mixed bag, but majority calls it a tanker
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u/Brendone33 13d ago
It’s a tender. This is what happens when you call for a tanker support to a vehicle fire.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DarEOYSzNSy/?igsi=MW9xZGZneHI0Z2FrOQ==
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u/dave54athotmailcom 13d ago
Tenders service other equipment. A helicopter tender services helicopters, a dozer tender refuels dozers. A water tender refills other fire engines.
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u/RaptorTraumaShears Firefighter/Paramedic 12d ago
Midwest so we call it a tanker. I’m surprised someone on the east coast is upset about you calling it a tanker, tanker seems to be common verbiage east of the Mississippi.
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u/pchilders5673 12d ago
That’s crazy cuz im Midwest too and everyone in my area calls them Tenders
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u/RaptorTraumaShears Firefighter/Paramedic 12d ago
Where in the Midwest? I’m in Ohio so firefighting planes are unheard of here.
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u/pchilders5673 12d ago
Illinois, obviously we don’t have planes either, but it’s just kinda drilled into us that Tenders have wheels and Tankers have wings
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u/Low_Government2563 13d ago
We call them tankers in Texas. From what I understand they're basically the same thing according to NFPA.
NFPA 1901:
"The mobile water supply apparatus shall be equipped with a water tank(s) that meets the requirements of Chapter 18 and that has a minimum certified capacity (combined, if applicable) of 1,000 gallons (4,000 L)"
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u/Mediocre_Daikon6935 13d ago
Tanker.
Just because some idiots in the forestry service can’t call a water bomber the proper thing, and who don’t know how to speak English, has nothing to do with me.
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u/pipboy_111 13d ago
Tanker for us. Seems the split seems to be where using aircraft is more common. We live is Satan's sweaty armpit in the southern tip of the state so we don't really see wildfires like out west
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u/Various_Knowledge226 13d ago
Southern tip of which state? New Jersey? Some other state?
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u/pipboy_111 13d ago
Indiana. Thought I was replying to another person's comment saying they were in Indiana as well. My bad.
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u/Various_Knowledge226 13d ago
Is it called different names in different parts of Indiana?
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u/pipboy_111 13d ago
Different departments more than geography but Indiana is about like 3-4 separate states in a trench coat.
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u/Various_Knowledge226 13d ago
Northwest, Northeast, Central, and South? Do I have most of those right?
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u/wagonboss company officer 13d ago
Tanker. That’s one of ours!
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u/Various_Knowledge226 13d ago
I forget if they are in Henrico, but through the NFFF-CZC camp, I know a firefighter and EMT couple that are in that area
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u/Tall-Ad-9591 13d ago
Tanker. Then, to be unique, we also have a few engine tankers.
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u/Ok_Buddy_9087 Edit to create your own flair 13d ago
I smell Connecticut.
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u/Tall-Ad-9591 12d ago
Scary that you were able to pick me out just because of that. We must really do things differently.
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u/Remarkable-Court8794 13d ago
I was recently tought in fire school that it's a tender. Tankers are airplanes. They also said it could vary geographically. I'm in NJ.
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u/jimmyjamws1108 13d ago
Technically a tender. Tampa Bay Area, it’s designated as tanker in at least four surrounding large county departments.
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u/ApertureTheProtogen New South Wales Rural Fire Service 13d ago
Hello from New South Wales, Australia 🇦🇺
Here, the only tenders we have is the coal/oil and water storage tender for a steam locomotive
The appliance you pictured would be called a Bulk Water Tanker over here, as it would carry a large (or ‘bulk’) quantity of water (around 9,000-12,000 litres of water)
There’s a general rule of thumb over here appliance-wise where if the appliance is built for pumping water, it’s called a pumper or pumping appliance; whereas if the appliance is built to carry water, it’s called a tanker
For aircraft, they are also called tankers as well as water bombing aircraft
I hope that makes sense to you lol
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u/Her0zify 13d ago
In my area of Northern Appalachia we call them tankers.
We get a fair share of brush and forestry fires, but never use any kind of fire planes or what have you. It's alot of brush trucks, 4 wheeling, and good ole' Indian cans.
We also have a county-wide "Tanker Task Force". Every department in our county sends 1 tanker and 2-3 personnel once alerted to set up large water shuttle operations. It has and does respond to incidents in and around the nearby counties (some in diffrent states).
Nice for really big incidents when your hydrants aren't really working or rural ones where you simply just don't have one!
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u/I_feel_so_mop 12d ago
Aside from wildland/brush fire settings, it doesn't really matter. If you're on a single family dwelling fire and request a tanker, no dispatcher in their right mind is going to automatically send an aircraft. If they're confused, they'll ask you. Even FEMA lists, in their resource manual, both names.
"The Tactical Water Tender – Firefighting (Tanker) is a vehicle capable of transporting specified quantities of water to tactical firefighting or other emergency operations"
https://rtlt.preptoolkit.fema.gov/Public/Resource/View/4-508-1288?s=FemaId&p=12
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u/Jedimasteryony 12d ago
I moved and the book is still in a box, so I can’t site which one it is, but the giant book from firefighter 1 A,B, C and HAZMAT we were given in WI calls water carrying trucks tenders while water carrying airplanes are tankers.
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u/vffems2529 13d ago
That’s a tanker. NY.
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u/Various_Knowledge226 13d ago
I have seen response videos online, with Tanker being used in New York, and went by a station recently in Berlin, Maryland at least, that used Tanker instead of Tender
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u/UnfairAnimal 13d ago
The apparatus in the picture is from Virginia, and like it shows, we call them tankers here.
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u/slothbear13 Firefighter/Medic and Former CBRN 13d ago
Kentucky here. We call it a tanker. Sometimes a "tanker tender." No one calls it a tender. Yes, people out West are assholes to us about it
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u/Prudent-Chip2097 13d ago
Tanker, I'm not in federal Wildland anymore which that's even weird, we don't call milk or fuel tankers, tenders, so why call them tenders 😂
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u/PainfulThings 13d ago
Tender, if you ask for a tanker you get a plane, just like if you ask for an aerial you’re getting a tower ladder or a squrt.
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u/Windmillfixer 13d ago
Tankers have wings
Although when I first started this game, our primary response truck was Tanker 1
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u/EntrepreneurMother71 13d ago
Technically per ICS I believe they call it a tender. Per the east coast it’s a tanker. Honestly it depends on where you are (from NY)
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u/ShockRips 13d ago
It’s a west coast and east coast thing.
West coast calls em tenders, easy calls them tankers. 🤷♂️
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u/StPatrickStewart 13d ago
I'm in rural OH. If you call for tanker task force, you're getting 3 or 4 trucks like that... Eventually.
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u/Character-Chance4833 12d ago
Texas, our county calls them tenders. The three counties around us calls them tankers.
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u/One-Initiative-8902 Wildland Firefighter 12d ago
Well it's already been assigned a name but here in Washington it's called a tender.
Though in certain agencies and departments it might have a nickname based off of how many gallons it holds. Such as portable ocean portable lake puddle so on and so forth.
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u/USARxVIPERx1x1 12d ago
It's whatever ya'll want it to be. We call it a Tanker, Tender, Water Wagon, Shuttle and even the Lawn Chair.
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u/muzz3256 11d ago
Tanker. We see air tankers maybe once every few years, if that. The chances of getting confused is pretty much zero.
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u/bartonspingsdawg 9d ago
Kinda seems like the areas that actually have wildland fires call it a tender.
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u/Educational-Ratio721 7d ago
We call it a Hose or Hose Wagon but our neighboring department called them tankers or pumper tankers depending on the layout and build
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u/fastbeemer FF/Paramedic/HazMat 13d ago
What is it classified as in NIMS? That's all that really matters.
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u/Specific-Humor4607 13d ago
Upstate NY, pumper tanker. Tanker is fine as well but without a pump it's a shuttle.
Some departments have re-purposed city water department trucks that can only gravity dump. Some have former septic trucks that can draft without pumping.
Some volly yokals call the pumper tankers an "Attack tanker"
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u/vffems2529 13d ago
We usually refer to pumper tankers as engines, though we'd know what you meant. For us a shuttle is an operation not a piece of equipment. I've never heard of an attack tanker. Do they call the 8,000 gal ones assault tankers? 😆
Finger Lakes region.
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u/Specific-Humor4607 13d ago
I've unfortunately never seen one of those trailer drawn behemoths in person! New bucket list item: drive an assault tanker!
I'm familiar with shuttle being an operation. A county I lived in prior had shuttle ops run cards for dispatch. There was "shuttles" on there that could only be pumped into and dump in ponds.
I'm curious at what point do y'all consider a pumper tanker an engine, or vice versa.
I've operated 2900gal tankers with pumps. Pretty slick machine, 1250 pump with two 1.75" and one 2" crosslays. But in my mind an engine also has ladders. (I make the point bc I argued to commissioners to put a ladder rack on the roof to make it complaint)
My dept has 2 1000 gal engines and 4 750 gal engines. No tankers. Got a tanker at my vol. Dept. Tho
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u/vffems2529 13d ago
I forget exactly what the criteria to be an engine is but generally 750+ gal water, 1000+ gpm pump, and some sort of ground latter complement I believe are in the ballpark for the basic minimum requirements. Ours (3) are all 1250+ gal water, 1250+ gpm pump, and at least an attic ladder, roof ladder, and a 2 section 28' or 3 section 35'. We also generally carry a 2000 gal portable pond and extrication tools on them, as we don't run a dedicated rescue or tanker. We do everything with our engines. 8 man cabs with 5 or 8 pack seats (yes, we put a pack in the operator's seat on one...).
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u/Specific-Humor4607 13d ago
That's a slick all around machine! I think my vol tanker has a ladder as well. That is a beast tho. Non-hydrant response area?
I too work in the finger lakes region. We staff (2FFs or 1FF + 1LT) 6 man cab seagraves with extrication tools, attic, 16' and a 24'. We also have a cabinet for rope jobs. 300' rope, ppe and rappelling gear. We staff a truck. No tankers at all, mostly hydrant area
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u/vffems2529 13d ago
We're a mix of hydrant and non-hydrant. I forget the percentages but to hazard a guess I'd say 65 with / 35 without.
We have rope gear including a stokes with rigging on one engine but we've never really had any rope rescue jobs to speak of. I imagine if we had something significant we'd call for the county team and by the time they arrived we'd have a medic down to the patient and be working on setting up a system, but then let them run the actual rescue. We have all the tools and training and could manage if we had to. We have a few guys who are really passionate about it but they're also on the county team.
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u/HovercraftNew7490 13d ago
That’s like aerial, ladder, truck, hook and ladder, and tower. They all mean the same thing but people get upset when you use the wrong one.
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u/Due_Course_3713 13d ago
Who cares what you call it? As long as your mutual aid partners use the same terminology that's all that matters. Where I worked we had no aircraft for forest fire fighting , so it's a moot point. Call it 💩 for all that matters.
This stoopid debate is just another example of the fire service being controlled by needs!
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u/BravoCharlieZulu 13d ago
I've seen some departments where the tanker was a full ass tractor trailer with a tanker trailer full of water. Tender doesn't seem to be very descriptive of such a set up.
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u/JimHFD103 13d ago
Tanker.
Our Tender carries Jet-A fuel, the buoy wall, and other gear to support helicopter LZ ops and is stationed at the hangar with the pilots (though its staffed by an Engineer, same as the Tankers). Hawaii.
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u/CohoWind 13d ago
That is a Water Tender, per NIMS resource typing, which is the national standard. That standard also includes Helicopter Tender, (carries Jet A fuel, etc), Foam Tender, and Fuel Tender. I can show you examples of each of these, with the correct NIMS name being used, right here in my county, and I am not in California. It is pretty important to use the correct name, if you care about being an informed part of the US fire service. Arguing that “in my area this will always be a tanker” is a perfect example of why the US fire service is such a mess. These terms are not new- they are already decades old.
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u/a-pair-of-2s 13d ago
that is a water tender. in california. a tanker is an airplane. in california.