"A great thing!"

The municipality of Steinhagen lies on the southern slope of the Teutoburg Forest, right by the A33 and just a stone’s throw from Bielefeld, in the Gütersloh district. The older generation still like to remember a celebrity who once lived here: David Odonkor, former national football player and 2006 World Cup participant. Not much actually happens here and in the two districts, Amshausen and Brockhagen. Unless the voluntary fire service is alerted.

Each district has a fire engine. The fire service has 120 active members, with young talent secured thanks to the children’s and youth fire brigade. In Amshausen the comrades are particularly proud, as they recently celebrated the commissioning of their newest vehicle, a Unimog U 323 as a TLF 2000.

“The risk of forest and wildfires is increasing,” says the head of the fire brigade, Lutz Mescher. He has 42 years of service. He knows the dangers lurking around Steinhagen. That's why he is so content with the new Unimog.

On board the new Unimog U 323 are 2,700 l of extinguishing water and 60 l of foam agent. In addition to the usual fire-fighting equipment carried on a TLF, the Steinhagen fire brigade have a variety of special equipment with them: C and B hoses, wetting D-jet modules, a powerful front monitor, fire hooks and 20-l fire backpacks for mopping up or tackling small ground-level hotspots. "The backpacks have already proved to be a very good investment this year," says fire chief Lutz Mescher. "They make us even faster and significantly more flexible, because we no longer need to lay long hose lines for smaller fires."

The Unimog U 323 was built by BAI in Italy. The emergency personnel insisted on handling the transfer to North Rhine-Westphalia themselves: "The trip over the Alps was great. The vehicle has everyone in the fire brigade excited!" said the fire chief.

Project implemented with Unimog general representative: RKF-Bleses GmbH