Fire hose comes in a wide variety of colors: White, Red, Yellow, Blue, Green, Orange, Black, and Tan. The colors, in addition to providing added durability, help firefighters identify the hoses they use most often.

Hoses tend to correspond to the matching colors located on the pump panel of a fire apparatus. 

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has 8 standard colors for double-jacket fire hose. A fire department can coordinate the colors on the pump panel and the hoses to ensure smooth communication between the engineer and the nozzleman.

While there is not one standard way to color-code hoses, it is up to the command staff to designate the SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) for the entire fire department.