Fire Engines Photos

that´s the Barkas the famous eastern Germany counterpart to the VW Bus in use from the early 60´s till production ceased in 1991...here as light pumping appliance with a "Tragkraftspritze" TS 8(portable pump 800 lpm)this one also was "chronicly powerless", with a tiny 3cyl.2 stroke !! engine of 45hp (does that remind my somehow of a scooter ?)the Barkas was also used in the GDR for the ambulance types SMH 1, 2and 3

Added by Andreas Hasselmann on 08 February 2009.

Thanks Andreas, I take it that these were the Trabants of East German fire brigades then?

Added by John Stott on 09 February 2009.

No John the Trabant was the premier small car in the GDR, simmilar maybe to the Fiat Panda or Ford KA in size for 4 persons but here you are right powered by the same engine as the Barkas (by the way this "Phonetian"an ancient language used by sea farer people of the mediternian coast-Gaza-strip today, it means "Blitz" lightning, certainly a bit ironic by todays standard, max.speed 100km/h.You can find lot´s of these ex GDR types on the german "blue-light"page www.bos-fahrzeuge.info (sorry it´s german only, but also a large international section like africa, asia, etc.the german parts are subdivided 1.by the state eg "Brandenburg" (one of the 5 eastern states of Germany, former GDR)than 2.the counties eg."Spree-Oder-Kreis", 3.by the type of service eg "Feuerwehr" Fire Brigade, "Rettungsdienst" Ambulance or "Polizei"Police or "Katastrophenschutz"CD, and you see all available pic.thats how you can see eg a barkas or IFA or Trabant (hope this may be a help to you, but beware ! there a lot more pic on this side than here, o take your time smile )

Added by Andreas Hasselmann on 09 February 2009.

Thankyou Andreas, anything to further an old firemans interest is welcome! I love the old eastern bloc machinery, built to last! I run a small Chinese tractor on my farm and the technology is very old, but does it let me down? Never, good solid and built to last!

Added by John Stott on 10 February 2009.

A very inexpensive and basic approach to fire protection, but it did mean that even tiny communities could enjoy a modicum of fire protection with their team of volunteers and this one small van. Five reasonably well trained and motivated volunteers could probably handle 90% of all alarms with this little rig, deploying the PP as needed for one or even occasionally two hose lines.

At the same time, many West German volunteer fire companies in small villages operated a similar TS8 unit, often using a VW, Ford of Germany, Mercedes, Opel or Hanomag van.

Added by Rob Johnson on 03 November 2020.

This idea of having a slide out “mini pod” in a medium sized van has been adopted in the past few years by many German fire services. The idea is to have a variety of pre-loaded sliding-in trays, so the same van can be used for different roles. They usually have a six seat crew compartment, but some can also be converted to nine seat personnel carriers.

As well as fire first response, packages include rescue, line rescue, water rescue, hazmat response, hose tender, BA tender, foam tender, Cobra Cold Cutter and EMS response.

Added by Rob Johnson on 07 October 2021.

The latest iteration of the compact van based light pump for small town and village volunteer fire companies is the TSF-W. This has a five seat crew compartment, a built in 500 litre water tank and a 1000 LPM PP installed in the rear. It is demountable, but pre-connected to the tank and to a 38mm flat hose with three 15 meter lengths ready to be deployed with a variable output 50 to 450 LPM nozzle. Not meant to be a substitute for a full size rescue pump, it is still a handy first responder in small communities which do not justify the cost of a bigger unit.

Added by Rob Johnson on 21 November 2022.

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