Corporate News

In Germany, Even the Firetrucks are Mercedes

Words Chris Danielson | July 14, 2016
When your life is on the line, don’t you wish your town’s firetrucks and ambulances were powered by Mercedes
Words Chris Danielson July 14, 2016

When your life is on the line, don’t you wish your town’s firetrucks and ambulances were powered by Mercedes. Often, for fire-fighters, every second counts, Making vehicles on which the emergency services can rely one hundred percent all the more important. “Six of the best” with all it takes to make this possible recently went into service in the fire departments at the Mercedes-Benz plants in Sindelfingen and Stuttgart-Untertürkheim. Each plant has three new Mercedes-Benz Antos trucks rated at 315 kW (428 hp), which have been transformed into fire-fighting vehicles by bodybuilder Rosenbauer.

New trucks for plant fire departments are technological forerunners

New trucks for plant fire departments are technological forerunners

Of particular note here is that the new fire engines at the plants are technological forerunners. These first fire-fighting vehicles built on the Antos chassis meet the strict Euro VI emissions standard, making them environmentally friendly. The high-performance fire-fighting vehicles are indispensable at the Mercedes-Benz plants. On average in the last year, the fire departments at the Sindelfingen and Stuttgart-Untertürkheim plants were called out several times per day.

New trucks for plant fire departments are technological forerunners

New trucks for plant fire departments are technological forerunners

The vehicle base is a Mercedes-Benz Antos, which is equipped with a six-cylinder common-rail diesel engine as standard and meets the requirements of the strict Euro VI emissions standard thanks to exhaust gas recirculation (EGR), SCR (Selective Catalytic Reduction) system with oxidation catalytic converter and diesel particulate filter. The engines in the vehicles used by the Mercedes-Benz plant fire departments have an output of 315 kW (428 hp) at 1800 rpm, with the power being sent to the wheels via an automated 12-speed Mercedes Powershift transmission. Each truck has a water tank capacity of 2500 litres, a foam agent tank capacity of 200 litres and water cannon that pumps up to 2400 litres per minute.

New trucks for plant fire departments are technological forerunners

New trucks for plant fire departments are technological forerunners

The Mercedes-Benz Antos is manufactured at the Wörth plant, which is also where the Mercedes-Benz trucks in the Actros, Arocs, Antos and Atego model series are produced. The multiple variants of the Rosenbauer fire-fighting body are produced at the Austrian plant in Leonding. Rosenbauer is renowned for its high-performance fire-extinguishing technology.