John Bean and FMC Fire Apparatus

The diverse Food Machinery and Chemical Corporation, later named FMC Corporation, made chemical and agricultural equipment dating back to the late 1800s. The Bean Spray Pump Company was an FMC division, changed to the John Bean Mfg. Co. in 1915 and sometime in the late 1930s an orchard owner successfully used his dependable John Bean sprayer to extinguish a neighbor’s house fire. This accidental success story led to the development of the high pressure fog system which helped put out fires during WWII, and soon led to the first High Pressure Fog Fire Fighter body that could be put on any truck chassis. Their success propelled them to become one of the revered names in the fire apparatus industry through the post-war years until their slow weaning of the Bean name and eventual demise in the early 1990s. Although primarily used by rural fire departments as an economical fire engine, many large cities even acquired FMC/Bean apparatus. Portrayed with historic black and white and contemporary color images, this book covers the whole lineup from slide-in pumper and tank combos, to custom-built brush trucks, tankers, commercial and custom chassis pumpers, and even aerials, snorkels and ladder towers.