Well prepared for every eventuality.

For such incidents the rescuers have a powerful seven-man boat complete with a matching trailer. One small problem: until now there have only been three slipways on the Neckar Canal, so launching was not easy. With the new "Rüst" truck this drawback is a thing of the past, because the U 5023 with Empl body has a crane behind the driver's cab that can lift the 5.20 metre long fire service boat and its 100 hp outboard motor directly from the attached tandem-axle trailer into the water.

This works excellently even at the locks, where cumbersome barges often pass through that had previously taken on cargo at the Osthafen. The fire service usually has to dive to search for missing persons. “There are between ten and 15 such missions per year,” firefighter Steffen Haas says thoughtfully. “With the new crane we are now much more flexible and quicker on the scene. That is why this was one of the most important requirements when replacing our old rescue vehicle,” adds Markus Widmann, head of technical services for the Heilbronn emergency crews. “This allows us to safely launch our 1,000-kg boat, complete with diver and crew, at any time.”

“Of course we will continue to use slipways like the one in Horkheim. But in floods such access routes are usually completely silted up and hardly passable with ordinary vehicles,” Widmann says. The U 5023 nevertheless pulls its crew effortlessly out of the proverbial “mire,” because it was factory-upgraded to the 1.2 m fording depth expected by the fire service and also fitted with coarse-lug directional tread tires. For extra traction Steffen Haas simply presses a button briefly, the tire pressure drops and, with the larger contact patch, the grip increases to the required level.

Behind the Neckar lock, the team rehearses launching the boat. By extending and securing the outriggers, Haas levels the Palfinger crane "into the water" using a spirit level. The tolerance is only a few degrees. The crane then automatically calculates the required lifting forces. Using the remote control, Haas directs the knuckle boom extension to his colleague, who had previously secured the aluminum tube superstructure to the boat and released the central safety lashing strap at the front of the trailer. With the four-stage extension the hook inches centimeter by centimeter toward the center of the boat. The monitor shows 8.80 metres of outreach as Haas's fellow firefighter hooks the rope anchor. One more short turn, then the rope is carefully eased – and the hull touches the water.

“But we don’t just secure 22 kilometres along the Neckar, we also cover lots of green areas and forest, where on hot days a forest fire can start quickly,” says Widmann. To be precise, it’s 1,450 hectares of forest. That is why the U 5023 was also prepared for such operations. Thanks to a hydraulic cargo liftgate, the fire brigade can quickly load equipment onto roll carts. “For example our high-pressure spraying system, which holds 600 litres and is ready for immediate use,” the technician explains.

"There is currently a ban on barbecuing up here," says the firefighter. "But not everyone sticks to it. In case of emergency we have to get going quickly and put the fire out." Steffen Haas and his colleagues are demonstrating the emergency under realistic conditions in a narrow clearing. In such cases the winch is also regularly used — today with no fire at all, to free a winegrower's tractor that had gotten stuck.

Once the steel cable has been rewound, "HN 1/51", as the new one is called, drives back to the standby area at the station. So that the colleagues can operate it properly, training is on the agenda: around 30 people still need to be trained — on the crane as well as behind the wheel of the Unimog.