Fire Engines Photos

Sounds very much like the German minor alarm van or the very similar French multi purpose van. Essentially both are designed to free up full time firefighters from turning out with multiple vehicles and numerous personnel to deal with minor incidents, which Germans call technical calls, the French call general alarms and in Britain the terminology used to be special services. Usually these do not have crew cabs, as part of the thinking is to avoid sending unnecessary people to incidents like this, so this does make me wonder if these really are analogous. The European versions generally carry little or no firefighting equipment, as any fire related call does get a fully equipped and staffed pumper. Similarly, they do not carry much rescue gear, for the same reason. But they are equipped to deal with lock in/ lock outs, minor floods, identifying CO or gas leaks, catching dangerous animals or snakes , pet rescues, medical first aid situations, broken tree branches, road obstacles etc and a plethora of other minor mishaps which the public expect fire services to help with.

Added by Rob Johnson on 06 August 2026.

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