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Story: Fires and fire services

Motorised fire engines

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Motorised fire engines

Motorised fire engines were an important advance in firefighting, as they enabled brigades to get to fires much more quickly. Here, members of the Whanganui fire brigade pose with their Merryweather fire engine (right) and a modified Model T Ford in 1919.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library, F. J. Denton Collection

Reference: 1/1-020869; F

by Frank J. Denton

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Nancy Swarbrick, Fires and fire services – Early fire services, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/21871/motorised-fire-engines (accessed 25 June 2026).

Story by Nancy Swarbrick, published 10 March 2010.