Fire Engines Photos

Here's a few details:

This is a "Jelcz type 003" engine, with bodywork made by Jelcz (Jelczańskie Zakłady Samochodowe), built between 1969 and 1975. The Star 25 chassis was heavily modified for this version (e.g. an extra transmission was added, the electrical system was altered and so on) and renamed Star A26P. It had a 2000 l water tank, a 200 l foam tank, a vehicle-mounted pump with a pathetic output of 800 l/min @ 8 bar (sic!). Because FSC Starachowice could not design and manufacture a proper, working PTO for the fire appliance chassis (two previous models were an utter failure), it came in the form of a... roller chain! Jelcz 003 also carried a portable pump with an output of 800 l/min @ 8 bar and a crew of 6. It was THE standard issue fire engine of the late 60s and early 70s in Poland. There was also an export version - 003E - which had a special engine cooling system (to make the vehicle more durable in a hot climate). International users included Egypt (a major customer for light fire appliances from FSC Lublin - Zuk A14), Pakistan and North Vietnam (at least one vehicle was donated by the factory to the "struggling brotherly socialist state" during the Vietnam War).

Jelcz 028 was its predecessor (built between 1966 and 1969).

Added by Konrad Nowak on 06 August 2012.

THanks for the photo. It's good to see this older more unusal appliance and hope it gets preserved? Thanks also for the info.

Added by Grant Melville on 07 August 2012.

Other photos of this generation Jelcz on this site show the hose carts, which were mounted on each side in the rectangulat recess just behind the crew cab door. These increased the width of the truck quite a bit, and must have made backing up a bit tricky!
This has an amazingly weak main pump for such a "first due" pumper - about 15% of the output of a US Class A engine, and at lower pressure too. I am surprised that Poland never simply burned down with this the "standard engine" in a country where a lot of the houses and many other buildings are wood construction.

Added by Rob Johnson on 08 August 2012.

Please add your comments about this picture using the form below.

Comments

Your Name

Your email address - this will be shown on the page and will allow the system to notify you of further comments added to this picture.