Andy Daley (BritishAndy) Photos

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Next up, a rather nice looking British built Reynolds Boughton Barracuda 6x6

 

 

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Next, a bit of an unusual truck - a Continental Contracts Developments Eagle 6 Crash Truck. This is basically an E\-One chassis built by a British company who went out of business fairly rapidly.

 

 

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This gem was a 1985 Reynolds Boughton Barracuda Junior Crash Truck, still going strong despite its age, but due for replacement next year.

 

 

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When our 737 taxied to the stand, we noticed a Rosenbauer Panther 4x4 overseeing things, the 4x4 version is actually quite rare and hard to find, so we were really pleased when the guys offered to bring it back for photography.

 

 

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The Rescue Vehicle for the airport is this sharp looking Scania G440 4x4 complete with Crane and bodied by local firm Szczesniak Specialist Vehicles.

 

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Rear shot

 

 

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Forward Command Unit is this Mercedes Sprinter which again, has bodywork from local company Szczesniak SV.

 

 

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Lastly from the airport was the Chiefs Whip - or Officers Car, a Nissan Navara 4x4

 

The guys at the Airport had been fantastic, gave us a gift bag each containing badges, patches, pens etc - and the entire crew lined up to shake our hands. Such a lovely touch and as we found out, commonplace for the Polish all week.

 

 

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Before we take a tour around Poland, a little bit of a history lesson...........

 

is a country in Central Europe, bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Lithuania to the north. The total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres (120,726 sq mi), making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people,Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world.

 

With its capital city - Warsaw situated in the north of Poland, our trip was based in and around Krakow. Krakow is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Wisla River in Southern Poland, it was founded in the 7th Century.

 

After the invasion of Poland at the start of World War II, Kraków became the capital of Germany's General Government. Poles and Jews were classified as subhumans by the occupiers and were targeted for eventual extermination. The Jewish population of the city was moved into a walled zone known as the Kraków Ghetto, from which they were sent to German extermination camps such as the nearby Auschwitz and the concentration camps like Płaszów.

 

Fire Surpression

 

The Fire Service in Poland is State run, and is known as Państwowa Straż Pożarna which translates as State Fire Guards - Straz translating literally as Guards. There is a mixture of full-time (career) fire stations in major towns and cities, and volunteer stations in practically every village or small town in the country.

 

 

 

 

 

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Our first stop after the airport was the Volunteer Unit of Nowa Gora - in English New Gora. Without wishing to offend the Polish, the majority of Volunteer stations are pretty much reliant on rigs that neither you guys or us British wouldn't entertain putting into service. Its not the fault of the guys, because their dedication, enthusiasm and bravery is quite humbling.

Don't get me wrong, the rigs work, and in some volunteer stations they have brand new rigs - its a case of as and when the Government can come up with the goods and supply them with new piece of apparatus.

 

I could talk all night about the plight of some of these guys, but the fact is being part of a volunteer outfit is seen as a very, very commendable thing in your community. You could have a stretch of road that goes on for four miles, and every mile is a village - and each of the four villages has a volunteer fire station, regardless of the distance between each station.

 

The rig at Nowa Gora was impressive - it is a Russian built Ural 4320 6x6 off-road pumper dating from the early 1980s. They love it, it goes like a tank and can handle rough terrain with ease.

 

 

[Dickey]

^{Thank you Andy for the awesome insight and pictures!! Its amazing to see that being a volunteer department anywhere in the world is not only a highly honorable thing to do but also a very underfunded organization.}

 

^{Keep up the good work.}

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Ok, so after a short delay we continue our trip to Poland.

 

A short distance after the town of Nowa Gora we arrived in the village of Paczoltowice, here we found another interesting rig - a Star 266 6x6 chassis with Moto Truck bodywork. I don't know the year of manufacturer. Now we arrived at this station at 2.00pm on a scorching hot afternoon, so after we kindly took up the guys offer on a ride around the village on the rig, we were then offered Vodka back at the station!

 

I don't mind a beer, or shots - but at 2pm on a sunny afternoon whilst out buffing?!  It is also apparently quite unsociable to refuse a shot of Vodka so with our arms twisted (except for the driver) we had our first go at Polish Vodka.

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Back shot

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Our next stop was the village of Gorenice, another volunteer unit where we found all the guys waiting for us. The language issue was difficult here as none of the crew spoke good English and my Polish is limited at best, but by gesturing and pointing at the sun, we got there.

 

First up, another Star 266 6x6 off-road pumper, but slightly older.

 

 

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Star and Jelcz are two very famous commercial vehicle manufacturers over in Poland, and the majority of apparatus was on one of those chassis.

 

This is a Jelcz 325 Water Carrier, although it is fitted with a pump and deck gun, I do not know any capacities.

 

This was circa 1980s.

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We found that many stations had small off-road vehicles/vans which are used as either Light Rescue Vehicles or Personnel Carriers. Also at Gorenice was this Light Rescue based on a Tarpan Honker,

 

DZT Honker (initially known as Tarpan Honker, also Daewoo Honker, Andoria Honker and Intrall Honker 4x4) - is a Polish multi-purpose all-terrain pick-up truck. Created in 1984, it is still in production in a variety of models. It is best known as the light truck used by the Polish Army both at home and in Iraq  Apart from the army and police forces, the company to own the largest number of Honkers is the KGHM company, which uses them to transport miners underground

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Our next stop was the village of Bukowno Miasto, here the young crew were happy to show us the three rigs in service. Just a note about the volunteer fire service in Poland, such is the esteem and popularity of being a volunteer, many young children become involved at an early age. Similar to fire cadets, they can accompany crews to incidents but don't get involved in firefighting until they trained which is from 17 onwards.

 

Anyhow, first up - an old favourite - Ural 4230 6x6 with Osiny bodywork.

 

 

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Next, another Star 266 6x6 but this time with BoCar bodywork.

 

 

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And finally, a Light Rescue complete with front-mounted winch was this Daewoo Lublin

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Our final stop of the day was the village of Stare Bukowno, another volunteer unit and again, literally not three minutes drive from the last station.

 

When we had been planning this trip, we mostly used Facebook as most volunteer units have their own page. We were really pleased when these guys offered us free accommodation for the night, as the station is a combined community hall/wedding office/hostel. We were bowled over by the kindness shown as ALL stations, who would insist on bringing food for us, drinks, you name it.

 

Here we were introduced to the Chief who didn't speak a single word of English (luckily the guy we had liaised with had studied in England), so after apparatus photography we were told the Vodka was coming out again!

 

Before we got drunk we got our cameras out, we were told that we could take one of the rigs off road to a forest and get some nice pictures later on, so in the meantime it was an ex German Magirus Deutz 192 pump, we believe this to have been ex Munich.