Fire Engines Photos

Many larger German cities have one or more of these ambulances, which are expressly designed to transport patients weighing up to 300 KG! "Rettungdenst" literally translates as "rescue service", and is used to describe the German fire services' Emergency Medical Service - rather than what we in the UK or USA would call rescue squads or rescue trucks/tenders.

All fire service emergency ambulances in Germany (of all sizes!) are therefore normally lettered with Rettungsdienst signage, like this example. SUVs and kombis which transport paramedics on urgent calls are identified as "Notartz" instead, which translates as emergency doctor. They are driven by firefighter EMTs.

These obese patient ambulances are another example of how German fire service fleets so often include many very rarely needed specialized vehicles and types of equipment, which would probably be much less commonplace in most other countries...

Added by Rob Johnson on 21 December 2020.

We have no data for Hamburg, but Munich has two of these, and in 2019 they were only turned out once a week...

Added by Rob Johnson on 23 December 2020.

Hello Rob, the obese patient appliance of MFB is no longer used in this function. There were differences between the organization running the rescue service and the Bavarian Red Cross. The contract on which MFB was using the units ran out with the Bavarian Red Cross taking over. MFB`s units are now only used for infectious diseases patient transport duties. Essen Fire Brigade, my local brigade, has got two obese patient RTW and these are busy. Neighbouring brigades got such RTW too and they are busy too.

Added by Matthias Stockebrand on 01 January 2021.

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