General
tender
What does tender mean?
A fire apparatus built around a large water tank (typically 1,000–4,000 gallons) used to shuttle water to fires where no hydrants exist — rural structure fires, wildland incidents, highway calls. NWCG and NFPA officially call them "water tenders"; many East Coast departments still call the same rig a "tanker," which in wildland-speak actually means an air tanker. The terminology fight is eternal.
"Set up a tender shuttle from the pond on Route 9 — we'll need at least three rolling to keep the attack line wet."
Origin
From general English "tender" (a vessel that services a larger one, as in a ship's tender); standardised by NWCG and NFPA to disambiguate from "tanker" (which in wildland use refers to fixed-wing air tankers).
Frequently asked questions
What does tender mean for firefighters?
A tender is a big rolling water tank used at fires where there are no hydrants.
How do you use tender in a sentence?
"There's no mains out here, so we called in a tender to keep the water going."
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