Lugano, Switzerland Fire Apparatus

[Truck4 48]

Pics of the Corpo Civici Pompieri in Lugano, Switzerland. Similar to other European countries, they run out of large, regional fire stations. This station in Vignola houses 18 rigs in two buildings- One with 10 bays and one with 4.

Gallery here:

http://www.onthejobny.com/gallery/The-Latest/

Newer 2007 Man Pumper:

Their Magirus Tower Ladder:

[jack10562 414]

That last unit photo (in the album) looks strikingly similar to a Dodge Ram Van.

[Union241 3]

That last unit photo (in the album) looks strikingly similar to a Dodge Ram Van.

It is a Dodge Ram Van. I find it interesting how they modified it with the roll up door. Is there one on the otherside? Is that unit a mini pumper of sorts with a small tank/pump inside or is it more of a utility?

[Truck4 48]

The Dodge is basically a utility vehicle. It is equipped for roadblocks, flooding, fire prevention and extra SCBA among other things.

[x635 4,066]

I love that ladder! You covered more ground in Europe then I thought!

[Truck4 48]

The dozen front-line apparatus include 5 Engines and 2 Trucks housed in the main building facing the street. The rigs are two deep in some bays:

Secondary apparatus (Haz-Mat, Rescue, Utility) are in a 4-bay building the rear of the complex.

[antiquefirelt 994]

Truck 4: How many firefighters staff the big 18 unit station at a time? I guess our idea of regionalization and their's is skewed. To me more smaller stations would seem better to end user service delivery, though far more costly I suppose.

[Guest FFNick]

Check out that Magirus Tower - certainly not anywhere as "beefy" as what we run over here. You think we over engineer here or do you think they are more realistic on understanding limitations of their apparatus?

[TL2L31 8]

You couldnt get me to climb that thing.

[SRS131EMTFF 471]

Is that a BMW chiefs car in the last picture?

[Guest FFNick]

Is that a BMW chiefs car in the last picture?

It's a police car.

[Guest FFNick]

You couldnt get me to climb that thing.

How about this one:

London Fire Brigade Aerial

[Truck4 48]

Switzerland, like Italy, has a national fire service. All thier stations are regional with platoon-type staffing. They run 4-5 men per rig on the front-line engines. Units are mission specific, as you can see with the ladder, and they see little structural fire. Also as with Italy, these stations run a smaller engine for narrow streets (pic above). For runs in those areas, they'll split the crew and take two engines.