TOT Unusual emergency vehicle

[Jeff Layman]

Just off the M27 near J7 yesterday morning.

A black or very dark green Land Rover with sirens and blue lights. On top were two or three short ladders the same colour as the vehicle. The Land Rover seemed to be a bit longer at the back behind the rear axle than an ordinary LR. Wheelbase possible normal length. There was no wording or marking at all on the LHS or back. There were no other emergency vehicles around.

Anyone seen one like this? The only thing I could find was this old post, but strangely from the same region!

[Jim GM4DHJ ...]

perhaps royalty or an MP needed his windows cleaned in a hurry ....

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

Green does not seem to be a good colour for an emergency vehicle. Though I understand some army vehicles use that colour. Remember the Green Goddess fire engines?

Brian

[Bob Eager]

Coastguard? Round here they are dark blue.

[newshound]

Bomb squad?

[Jeff Layman]

As far as I know, both of those have obvious markings. I went through just about every Land Rover photo at

but am none the wiser. Maybe one of the "Special" services?

As it happens it was recorded on my dash cam, but it was rather a long way away. Here is the best I can do - very enlarged snapshots from the video:

The position of the blue lights in the first one seems unusual.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Looks military to me.

[Jeff Layman]

Almost certainly. An ex-copper friend thought it might be a vehicle of the Ministry of Defence Police ("Mod Plod" as he calls them!). But they use the "Battenburg" pattern on their vehicles. Seems to me it's more likely to be Military Police. See:

.

[nightjar]

All the bomb squad vehicles I have seen have the corners, where there would once have been mudguards, painted red.

[nightjar]

Forestry commission vehicles are dark green. Their fire-fighting vehicles can carry blue lights, which might explain the ladders.

[Vir Campestris]

IIRC They were borrowed from the Army.

Andy

[Andy Burns]

I think they're actually scrapped/sold now.

I did used to know where they "hid" when they were on strike-breaking duty (because I write software that GPS tracks 100+ current fire engines, and they usually tended to have a couple of spare modern ones alongside the ancient ones).

[Dave Liquorice]

During the strike the army provided the manpower but I thought the Green Goddess's themselves came from civilian "strategic reserves".

[nightjar]

Yes. They were part of the civil defence programme and were operated by the Auxiliary Fire Service, until it was disbanded in 1968. After that they were under Home Office control.

Technically, they are not fire engines, but self propelled pumps, intended to move large volumes of water quickly. As such, their main role under the Home Office was for flood defence and disaster control. They were used by the Army as fire engines during strikes, but they were not best suited to the task and, since 2004, fire services are required to make their vehicles available to the army during a strike. They have been superseded in the flood defence and disaster control areas by modern high volume pumping units, also supplied by the government.

[Muddymike]

Their Bedford Six cylinder petrol engines made them incredibly thirsty!

Mike