Fire Engines Photos

very good photo!

Added by Dimitris Fragkias on 14 November 2005.

This 45 ton capacity crane was purchased in 1992 at a cost of close to a million marks. Because of its cost, it is the only crane operated by the city brigade.

It weighs 36 tons and is based at station 30, along with a dedicated crane tender AB container and WLF roll-on roll-off container carrier.

Ed: I continue to be completely mystified how fire depts afford such expensive equipment when in the UK they would simply be hired in from contractors. They cannot be used often, and must represent very poor value for money. I know Germany is wealthier.

Added by Rob Johnson on 23 November 2020.

Are the large numbers of fire personnel and equipment at German towns due to some sort of civil defence element ? a bit like the British AFS. Germany being on the front line in the cold war.

Added by CraigW on 24 November 2020.

They are really very common in Germany - Berlin with a population of 3.5 million has three! I think there are two main reasons there are so many in Germany:-

First, Germany was on the front line of the Cold War for nearly fifty years, and took its fire service and civil defense preparedness very seriously. German fire brigades have far more personnel, fire stations and equipment than most other countries, including hosts of specialized appliances and equipment, not just limited to these huge cranes.

Second, Germany is indeed considerably wealthier, but there is another aspect of how they organize firefighting and rescue response. 97% (yes, 97%) of all operational firefighters are unpaid volunteers. This compares with around 75% in most countries (and barely any in the UK).

Whereas payroll and related benefits costs account for around 80% of the total cost of UK fire services, in Germany they are a much smaller fraction. This frees up tremendous funding for many more fire stations and much more equipment. Even large cities have considerable volunteer resources in addition to full time stations, and even small villages have a volunteer fire station.

For example, although Berlin has 35 full time fire stations it also has over 50 additional volunteer stations as well. In Germany as a whole, there is a volunteer fire station for every 3,500 citizens and the volunteer fire services combined have over a million members!

Added by Rob Johnson on 24 November 2020.

Craig: Interesting question! Some volunteer fire companies are indeed equipped with a State-issued "Kts" or civil defense pump appliance, but these are in relatively small numbers and are crewed by regular volunteers. They are typically equipped with a large hose load for big water and/or relay purposes. There is no equivalent organization to the AFS as such, as the existing volunteer infrastructure was and is so extensive.

The tradition of numerous volunteer fire companies goes back a couple of centuries or longer in many places, to when fire pumps were manual and needed huge manpower. The Cold War certainly did nothing to diminish volunteer enthusiasm. If hostilities had broken out, many of their communities would have immediately been at risk.

Added by Rob Johnson on 25 November 2020.

To give you an idea of how this works, the city of Maintal (population 39, 000) operates 28 vehicles, ten trailers and three watercraft. In common with most towns of less than 100, 000 population, it is an all-volunteer outfit.

Some of their fleet are on this site in the "Feuerwehr Maintal" section.

Added by Rob Johnson on 25 November 2020.

As comparison my local station covers Redcar and Marske population about 50,000. Two appliances one full time one retained (crew paid but called out from their other jobs).

Added by CraigW on 27 November 2020.

Craig: It isn't only Germany. Our former hometown on Long Island, NY, had a population of 43,000 and had around 250 active volunteer firefighters working out of five fire stations. They handled around 1200 fire calls and 700EMS runs a year, with 11 engines, 2 ladder towers, 1 quint, 2 rescue squad trucks, 3 ALS ambulances, 5 chief's SUVs and 2 administrative support pickups. This town is in Nassau County, which, with a total population of 1.4 million, has 190 volunteer fire companies - and no full timers.

Further afield, Chile has no full time firefighters except for officers, dispatchers, investigators, trainers and staff positions. Even Santiago city - with 5.5 million people - relies entirely on volunteer fire companies.

Added by Rob Johnson on 28 November 2020.

Incredible difference in manpower and equipment levels for similar populations but TBH our one and a half appliances do not appear overstretched.

Added by CraigW on 29 November 2020.

Craig: I think the fact is that most of the time UK fire brigades and those in some other countries which have such meager fire protection "get away" with limited resources because most incidents are quite minor.

When my own Long Island house had a basement fire, three engines, a ladder truck, a rescue truck and three chief's cars responded with around thirty firefighters. In fact the first crew handled the incident with one 45mm line, and none of the other crews or equipment were really necessary. But when serious events unfold, having the "extra" units and personnel on site can make a huge difference.

Added by Rob Johnson on 29 November 2020.

To update the incident profile in a typical Major German city, Frankfurt firefighters report attending 950 fires last year, of which only 7 were “large fires”, where more than three jets were needed.Incidents which required a two or three jets - which would be more or less characterized as four pump fires in the UK numbered only around thirty, in addition to the seven.

The severity of fire incidents in Germany is defined by the type of extinguishing media and number of jets used (if any) rather than by the number of pumps attending as in the UK or the number of alarms, as in the USA.

Added by Rob Johnson on 13 August 2021.

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