Fire Engines Photos

In common with Germany, Austria and many other countries, in both Europe and the Americas, Poland has a vast network of volunteer fire companies in small towns and villages which are too distant from the professional paid national fire service stations in large towns and cities to be able to adequately covered by them. These outfits do of course have limited budgets, and - like others in other countries - they are often reliant on buying used trucks. In Poland, a rally of OSP companies can include a very interesting variety of sometimes quite elderly fire trucks from many countries. All kinds of brands, specifications and color schemes are to be seen from practically every country which builds fire engines!

Added by Rob Johnson on 15 January 2025.

Having traveled extensively in Poland, visiting both professional and volunteer fire brigades, I can say the variety of fire engines, particularly in the volunteer brigades, is remarkable. At present there is around 18,000 individual volunteer fire brigade's in Poland with a strength of around 460,000 firefighters. This is in addition to the 508 professional fire stations and 28,000 wholetime firefighters.



Added by on 16 January 2025.

Yes, the 94% of all Polish firefighters belonging to volunteer fire companies is very similar to Austria and Germany, which are both around 97%. In those countries every town and city with a full time paid fire brigade also has one or more volunteer fire companies, which is a bit different from Poland. The only country I can think of with a wider range of different types and vintages of fire engines than Poland is Argentina, which has loads of trucks bought second hand from the USA and Canada, as well as from all over Europe and Japan too! Amazing to see a Hahn, a MAN and a Hino at the same incident……

Added by Rob Johnson on 17 January 2025.

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