Fire Engines Photos

This is an example of the older standard major pump appliance specification in Germany, which was universally used by both full time and volunteer firefighters. Its history also exemplifies the very common practice in many German cities with both full time paid fire reps as well as volunteers, which is to hand down units which have been operated by the full time stations to volunteer companies. Although of course there is a lot of variation between locations, it is commonplace for volunteers to respond to incidents at a rate only around 20% of that experienced by full time crews. This is because they are a second responder most of the time, and also because the number of volunteer stations usually greatly outnumbers full time locations. For this reason, this second life for older appliances is usually a lot less busy than their earlier careers in full time service. With the emergence of the rescue pumper in the 21st century, many volunteer outfits are now operating handed down rescue pumpers too. Bear in mind that many larger and more affluent cities like Berlin and Munich do buy new units for their volunteers too, but in these cases they tend to donate or sell their old trucks to other volunteers in surrounding smaller communities.

Added by Rob Johnson on 02 June 2026.

With a population of around 250,000 this city has one very large full time central fire station and no less than eighteen additional volunteer fire stations. Although one is combined with the main station, the others are well distributed around the entire city, often in smaller village communities which have been absorbed into the city over the years. Because of this history the volunteer stations vary in size and staffing, as well as in the frequency of their turnouts. In total there are over 430 operational unpaid volunteers on call, almost four times as many people as the city has full time paid firefighters.

Added by Rob Johnson on 13 June 2026.

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