Fire Engines Photos

Some more details:

Kerb weight: 25,9t
GVWR: 33t
Engine: 12-litre, V6, Euro III

Pump: two-stage, 4800 lpm @ 8 bar, 250 lpm @ 40 bar

CAFS system: Waterous-Pneumax

Roof monitor: remote-controlled, 3800 lpm

Water tank: 4000 l
Foam con. tank: 5000 l
CAFS foam con.: 200 l

'SUKURS' Ltd. Works Fire Service provides fire cover for the steelworks in Nowa Huta (Cracow). Most of their equipment dates back to the 80. and early 90., the Actros is the youngest firefighting appliance at their disposal. In total, 'SUKURS' has two stations, 12 vehicles, and more than 60 employees.

Over the past decades, the Nowa Huta steelworks was home to many interesting and innovative appliances (including a 1960s 'squirt', built by the firefighters themselves!). Currently, the plant employs less than 1/10 of its 1970s workforce and its output is about 1/5 of what it used to be. It is also, fortunately, no longer polluting at a catastrophic scale. But as the plants economic significance diminished, so did that of its fire brigade, which is set to be reduced again sometime in the near future.

Added by Konrad Nowak on 15 January 2010.

Konrad, thanks for the Truck and Fire Coverage Information - that is/was a sizable Industrial Fire Dept.

And, to show us, different ways of fire-fighting.

In our rural areas, the Volunteer Firemen still sometimes "create" their own Fire Apparatus.....is there any chance of seeing SUKURS
1960's "Home-made Squrt" ?

Regards, from Canada,
Pat_R-B

Added by Pat Rivers-Bowerman on 15 January 2010.

Hi Pat,

The only picture of the ZUBR 'Squirt' that I have appeared in a book and posting it here would be breaking copyright laws, but I'll email it to you as soon as I dig out the scan from my archive ;)

The squirt was not only 'home-made', it was also built on a chassis which was extremely rare in the Polish fire services. Back in the socialist era, the bodywork of fire engines was done by truck/bus manufacturers and not specialist firms. They made only standard designs, which hardly suited the users' specific needs. Custom-made Western appliances (primarily from Rosenbauer Austria, but also Total, Sides, Metz, Magirus and later Schmitz) were imported from the mid-1970s onwards, but prior to that, many brigades made their specialist vehicles themselves, at their workshops. And - belive it or not - until the 2000s, virtually all existing Polish hose-laying units were home-made!

Added by Konrad Nowak on 16 January 2010.

Hi Konrad:

Received your E-Mail Scan, as above; and thanks very much for taking the trouble to send it.

The ZUBR "Squrt" truck in it, resembles some British Fire Engines, to my North American eyes.....

For all our "moaning" in the "Western World"; your people had to work in some awfully difficult times, and a real credit to them, to build and carry out what they did.

And, the joy of this Web-Site, is to learn about other people's world....

Regards, from Canada,
Pat_R-B

Added by Pat Rivers-Bowerman on 18 January 2010.

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