Fire engine red is an intense, bright red

Red

Red is any of a number of similar colors evoked by light consisting predominantly of the longest wavelengths of light discernible by the human eye, in the wavelength range of roughly 630–740 nm. Longer wavelengths than this are called infrared , and cannot be seen by the naked eye...

 commonly used on emergency vehicle

Emergency vehicle

An emergency vehicle is any vehicle that is designated and authorized to respond to an emergency. These vehicles are usually operated by designated agencies, often part of the government, but also run by charities, non-governmental organizations and some commercial companies...

s in the United States and Canada; mostly on, as the name implies, fire engines

Fire apparatus

A fire apparatus, fire engine, fire truck, or fire appliance is a vehicle designed to assist in fighting fires by transporting firefighters to the scene and providing them with access to the fire, along with water or other equipment...

.
Most traditional older fire department

Fire department

A fire department or fire brigade is a public or private organization that provides fire protection for a certain jurisdiction, which typically is a municipality, county, or fire protection district...

s in larger U.S. central cities

Central City

In city planning, a Central City is the largest or most important city or cities of a metropolitan area, of which the other smaller cities and towns of the metropolitan area are suburbs. A central city is usually the first settlement established in an urban region before the outlying districts came...

 of major metropolitan area

Metropolitan area

The term metropolitan area refers to a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories, sharing industry, infrastructure, and housing. A metropolitan area usually encompasses multiple jurisdictions and municipalities: neighborhoods, townships,...

s use this color for their fire engines, but many smaller cities and also many suburbs now use the color chartreuse yellow for their fire engines because of its supposed greater visibility at night

Night

Night or nighttime is the period of time when the sun is below the horizon. This occurs after dusk. The opposite of night is day...

. Some departments have a mix of both.

In Europe a different shade of red is used.

See also

• List of colors
• International orange
  International orange
  International orange is a color used in the aerospace industry to set things apart from their surroundings, similar to safety orange, but deeper and with a more reddish tone.-International orange :...
  
  
• Safety orange
  Safety orange
  Safety orange is a hue. Its deeper, more saturated shade is known as international orange...
  
  
• School bus yellow
  School bus yellow
  School bus yellow is a color which was especially formulated for use on School buses in North America in 1939. The color is now officially known in Canada and the U.S. as National School Bus Glossy Yellow and was originally called National School Bus Chrome. The pigment used for this color was, for...
  
  

External Links

Big Red Engine Co.