We found it incredible that everything at this station was volunteer and that Maarssen was only a small town. Over the next few days I learned that money and financing of the Fire Service in Holland is not so much a problem as it is in the UK.
After our epic photo session Arnold invited us to the station bar where we had a couple of cold beers - the bar is bigger and more well stocked than most pubs and taverns I have seen and apparently the fire station is like a social club at weekends!
Thank you for the photos. Very interesting station design where the trucks park sideways and share a door instead of each one having a door. I bet that saves space.
Jason Knecht
Fire Inspector
Township Fire Dept., Inc.
Eau Claire, WI
Sorry for the delay guys, been busy with work.....
Ok, so after our volunteer 'warehouse' at Maarssen we headed to the city of Utrecht - the fourth largest city in the Netherlands. They have five 24hr (career) stations in Utrecht but we could only fit two into our schedule.
The first one was Leidsche Rijn station - this was in the city centre and also the site for the HQ, Dispatch centre, fire safety etc. It was by far one of the most unusual stations I have seen - a vast office block type building was a single exit door for vehicles to respond from.
We just chanced our luck here and arrived unannounced, the guys where friendly enough but told us that their meal was getting dished up in 10 minutes so they could only move two vehicles (the station had about ten), so we opted for two special units - first up a Rescue Tender.
Just to point out, in Europe a Rescue Truck is not like a Rescue in the USA - it is only used for road accidents, entrapments, building collapses, - basically anything non-fire related.
This was a brand new MAN TGM 15.250 - again, we couldn't find the bodybuilder.
We then headed over to another Utrecht station - Voorddorp, I was keen to visit this station as they had a very smart looking Foam Unit.
The guys here were fantastic and moved all three vehicles, a pump, the Turntable Ladder and the Foam Unit.
This is the Pump, its a Mercedes Atego with Gemco bodywork. It is pretty much standard for what most major cities in Holland operate, Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Eindhoven all having similar vehicles.
In Holland Foam Tenders are quite popular due to the extensive motorway network, large area of docks and petro-chemical/oil refineries and other industry.
This is a 2010 Mercedes Actros Foam Tender, I cant find my notes to tell you how much it carries, but I can tell you it can pump at a rate of 4000 litres per minute.
The guys were keen to show us the roof and bumper monitor and actually stopped the traffic outside the fire station so they could operate their monitors (turrets) into an adjacent stream!
Time was getting on a bit and we had to be at our hotel in Rotterdam at a reasonable hour, but we headed out east to a town called Zeist. We had heard that they had a huge Scania off-road vehicle which we were keen to see.
Unfortunately for us the guys at Utrecht had told us the station was volunteer and it was possible that nobody would be around.
We took a chance and set off and arrived to find a huge station full of vehicles. We drove into the yard and found a guy who appeared to be too old to be a Firefighter - pensioner age (I hope he doesn't ever read this ) but in fire service uniform. After making ourselves known it transpired that our guy was the regional co-ordinator for the youth firefighters - like fire cadets. Next question, could he drive any of the vehicles? To our delight he told us not only could he drive any vehicle, he was happy to move all of them!
First up, a picture of the fire station which only opened in 2011. (not my picture)
First up, one of the pumps - a 2004 MAN LE18.280 4x4, part of the response area for Zeist is a large forest with some pretty remote houses and properties. This is why the fire brigade has some off-road vehicles.
) but in fire service uniform. After making ourselves known it transpired that our guy was the regional co-ordinator for the youth firefighters - like fire cadets. Next question, could he drive any of the vehicles? To our delight he told us not only could he drive any vehicle, he was happy to move all of them!
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