How to Draw a Fire Truck – Easy Step-By-Step Guide

Have you ever seen a fire truck? If you live in a big town, you have probably seen one or even know where your local fire station is located. Today’s lesson will teach us how to draw a realistic fire truck in simple steps. But before we get started, we need to understand what a fire truck is.

Also known as a fire engine, a fire truck is a road vehicle that serves as a firefighting apparatus. The primary use of this vehicle is to transport firefighters and water to an incident. The incidence does not necessarily have to be a fire incident. It can be any incidence that requires a rescue. The fire truck carries the equipment needed for the rescue mission. Now let’s get back to today’s lesson.

What You Will Need

• A pencil
• An eraser
• A ruler
• A drawing piece of paper
• Coloring supplies
• 30 minutes of your time

How to Draw a Fire Truck

Our lesson on how to draw a fire truck was made for young artists who love fire trucks and those aspiring to be firefighters. As a result, we will not just be discussing the steps needed to complete a beautiful drawing but also sharing a few interesting facts about the different parts of the fire engine.

Here are the steps we will be following. Study them carefully so that you have an idea of what we will be doing.

Step 1: Draw the Wheels

Fire trucks are large vehicles. They need large wheels to support not just the weight of the truck but also the weight of the water and equipment that the truck carries. In our drawing, we will start by adding the wheels.

We will be drawing the wheels at the bottom of our drawing paper. We will, however, leave some space between the wheels and the bottom margin so that we can add a road later.

We start by adding the front wheel. Draw a circle close to the bottom left part of your drawing paper. Try and make the circle as smooth as possible. You should then add another smaller circle inside the first one to complete the front wheel.

To be able to support the weight of the truck, equipment, and water, the fire truck usually has four rear wheels on each side. Due to the perspective of our fire engine, we will not be able to draw all eight wheels. The perspective of the drawing only allows us to see the wheels from the side. As a result, we will be adding two rear wheels beside each other. Make them the same size as the front wheels. The two rear wheels should, however, be positioned close to each other as shown in our illustration below.

Step 2: Draw the Chassis

The chassis is the base frame of a vehicle. It is the structural skeleton that the truck rests on. A fire truck needs a strong chassis. This is what we will be adding next.

Using your ruler, draw a horizontal rectangle that cuts through the center of the wheels. The rectangle should be longer on the front end and extend slightly beyond the rear wheels as shown below. Once you are done, erase the sections of the rectangle that cut through the wheels.

Step 3: Draw the Body

Now that we have the wheels and the chassis ready, we can go ahead and add the body. As aforementioned, the body of the fire truck sits on the chassis. This means the length of the body should not exceed the length of the chassis.

Use your ruler to draw a rectangle that sits above the rectangle we added for the chassis. The height of the rectangle should not be too big or too small.

To turn the rectangle into the body of the fire truck, we will start by making the top right corner of the rectangle rounded. Erase the sharp corner and make it rounded.

For the front cabin, where the driver and firefighters sit, we will start by adding a diagonal line starting a short distance from the top left corner of the rectangle. Extend the diagonal line slightly towards the front up to halfway through the height of the body. Next, add another diagonal line to connect the first diagonal line to the left part of the body. Next, make the corners rounded. You should then erase the section of the rectangle that sits on the left part of the front end of the fire truck.

Step 4: Draw the Reinforced Roof, Cabin Window and Door

Now we are going to make our fire engine look like a real truck. For that, we will start by adding the reinforced roof. Fire trucks carry many things on the roof including the ladder and suction hose. To support this weight, the roof has to be reinforced. To indicate that the roof is reinforced, we will add a horizontal line below the ceiling as shown in our illustration below.

We are then going to add the cabin door by drawing a vertical rectangle right above the front wheel. Curve the lines of the rectangle so that it doesn’t end up cutting through the windshield as it goes up to sit right below the line we added for the reinforced roof. For the cabin window, we will simply draw a horizontal line that divides the rectangle we added for the door.

Erase any lines that are overlapping or cutting through the wheel. Our fire truck is starting to take shape, isn’t it?

Step 5: Draw the Second Door and Windows

The next thing we are going to do is add the second door. This sits right behind the first door. We will simply draw it by adding a vertical line that starts from the roof to the chassis.

For the windows, start by using the ruler to draw a horizontal, faint line that starts from the bottom of the front window we added earlier and extends to the back part of the truck. Next, add another faint line starting from the top of the front window to the back of the truck. This will give us a guide so that we draw windows that are of the same height.

To add the windows, draw vertical lines that connect the top and bottom part.Try and keep the width of the windows the same size. You should then use the horizontal faint line we added to trace the top and bottom of the windows. Try and make the corners of the windows rounded then erase the sections of the guide line that we did not use.

Step 6: Add a Stripe Below the Windows

The entire body of a fire truck is reinforced not just to support the weight but also for the safety of the firefighters. In most fire trucks, the middle section of the truck is reinforced. That is why we are going to add a stripe that sits below the windows.

For this, simply use your ruler to add two parallel lines below the window. The lines should start from the front door and extend to the back of the truck as shown below.

Step 7: Add the Siren

Fire trucks have to rush to an incident site without being hindered by pedestrians and other motorists. To make their presence known, these trucks have a siren and flashing lights. These features sit right above the driver’s cabin.

To add the flashing light, we will start by drawing a small square above the driver’s cabin. We will then add a vertical rectangle with a rounded top on the square to create the flashing light.

For the loudspeaker, we will start by adding a vertical line on the front of the truck. Next, we will draw a diagonal line that starts from the square we added for the siren and connect it to the top of the vertical line. You should have something that looks like this.

Step 8: Draw the Water Pipe

To put out fires, firefighters use a long pipe to direct water either from the fire truck or a fire hydrant (a connection on the street that helps firefighters tap into the water supply). For that reason, we are going to add a pipe at the back of our fire truck.

Start by drawing a rectangle on the roof of the fire truck. Add horizontal lines to indicate that the rectangle is a rolled-up pipe. Next, draw a tube-like structure that moves from the center of the rolled-up pipe to the back of the truck. The tube-like structure should connect to a rectangular shape at the back of the truck. Your drawing should look like this.

Step 9: Draw a Ladder

To get to the top floors and elevated positions, firefighters need a ladder. We will add this to the top of the fire truck. Draw a horizontal rectangle on the roof that starts from the siren and stops a short distance from the water pipe. Draw another rectangle inside the first one then add vertical lines to form a ladder. Erase the right and left ends of the rectangle.

Step 10: Refine Your Drawing

The fire truck is now ready. Congratulations!

If your drawing doesn’t look as good as ours, don’t be discouraged. Most people don’t achieve a perfect drawing the first time. You can always give it another try. Practice makes perfect.

Take the Drawing to the Next Level

We will not leave our drawing as it is. We will take it further by doing two crucial things.

Add a Background

To advance our drawing, we will first add a background. We are going to add a road beneath the fire truck. Other things you can do is add a name on the side of the truck, as well as some trees and clouds in the background.

Color the Drawing

Once you are satisfied with your drawing, color it using your preferred colors. This is what we did to our truck.

Conclusion

Drawing a fire truck involves combining several shapes and lines. We started by using circles to draw the wheels and then rectangles to add the chassis and the body. We then added the doors, windows, siren, water pipe, and ladder. To advance our drawing, we added some background and colored it.

These steps can be used to draw a fire truck from a real photograph. You can also use them to sketch a fire truck on your favorite app. The key is to keep practicing and never forget to have fun. 

Thanks for reading & feel free to check out more of our articles!