Who says the competitive spirit is missing in the US? This does sound like the volunteer firehouses where my kid lives--when they have (oh, what are they called) the competitions where the trucks are all spiffed up, they put car detailers to shame.
BTW, I live about 40 miles from Seagrave, who's building the new firetrucks for NYC. The one truck pictured on the opening page has an especially flashy paint job & it looks great. The stories about it were covered extensively in this area. Seagrave employees worked their butts off getting these trucks out way ahead of schedule. They're now in New Jersey to get fitted out. Because so many of the FDNY firefighters had come to Clintonville to supervise the construction of the trucks, a number of people in the town had close relationships with these guys. 9/11 hit Seagrave very hard.