Apparatus constructed by Fire Departments

FD-built, or Fire Department built, refers to a truck body built by members of a fire department. In most cases, these trucks are modifications to existing truck bodies. Some larger fire departments are equipped with more comprehensive facilities (usually referred to as the "shops" or "FD-shops", as in the dept's mechanical shop/maintenance facility) that can fabricate bodies onto existing vehicle chassis. Most commonly, department-built apparatus tends to be rescue, brush and utility units, but several decades ago (roughly from the 1920s through the 1970s), many newly-founded small or rural volunteer departments built their first apparatus themselves, as they could not afford the cost and/or time for a purpose-built apparatus.