Forest firefighting vehicles – deployed under the most extreme conditions.
As a leading manufacturer of special vehicles, Rosenbauer’s wildland firefighting application area is also a key focus. The competence center for forest and bush firefighting vehicles is located in Spain. But “Wildland and Brush Trucks” are also designed and produced for brush fires at our US locations and make a significant contribution to enabling the production of vehicles conformant to all relevant national directives.
The danger of forest fires is ever-present!
When the forest fire season comes to an end in southern Europe, it is just starting in many parts of the world – the fire season across the globe is year-round. The most important forest fire types are earth fires, ground or wildfires, and also crown or full fires. In addition to special vehicles, Rosenbauer also offers equipment appropriate for combating all types of fire.
In Focus: preventing propagation!
The main task in combating forest fires is primarily to prevent them from spreading. In urban areas vegetation fires are usually discovered in their formation phase, but this is almost impossible in uninhabited and extensive bushland and forested areas. Thus, emergency crews are often confronted with advanced scenarios. This means that the initial activity is aimed at keeping the fire from spreading.
Optimal support by the vehicle.
When it comes to the actual firefighting, the well thought-out vehicle concepts from Rosenbauer play an important role. Essentially there are two types: forest firefighting vehicles and supply vehicles.
The classic forest firefighting vehicle is a robust, compact, and all-terrain vehicle. It can reach even the most impassable, densely-vegetated, and remote areas by the use of a particularly suitable chassis, and it represents the front line of firefighting.
Extinguishing while driving – so-called “pump and roll operation” – is an essential feature of these vehicles. Thus, while the vehicle is moving slowly along the perimeter of the fire, the crew can fight it with branch pipes.
The vehicles are tailor-made to the customer’s requirements, whether in terms of size, pump, UHPS for compact units, or likewise payload.
The supply vehicles can be considered the second line. They usually have a large water tank and provide the water supply for the forest firefighting vehicle and also for helicopter extinguishing containers. Most of these vehicles commute between a water supply point and a mobile extinguishing water tank, which in turn is used by the forest firefighting vehicles.
New, flexible concepts introduced.
The demand for a single vehicle to handle a wide variety of applications is on the rise. There are combination vehicles where the forest fire extinguishing superstructure is designed as a removable loading concept. These vehicles are used as firefighting vehicles in the forest fire season, and at other times for municipal applications, such as deployment as a winter maintenance vehicle.
Protecting the emergency crews is essential.
Since emergency crews often venture into areas where they are on their own, safety is paramount. Crews are usually exposed to significant dangers, as strong, changing winds or other unforeseen phenomena can quickly put them at risk. This is why forest and bush fire fighting vehicles are equipped with appropriate self-protection facilities and can be considered retreat and escape vehicle in one.
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