Fire engines

Fire engines

GMC CCKW 353 B2 with an outfit built by Merceron once belonging to the brigade of Deux Sevres: left as found in May 2009, right
after finishing its restauration in April 2010

French authorities subjected their fire brigade to a standardization program in the 50s of the previous century. This program included the design, production and introduction of a tanker-pumper for fighting forest fires. Next to all-terrain capacities the intended equipment should have a mobile pump with a capacity of 500 liters per minute (10 bar) and a tank capacity of 2500 liters. Famous constructors such as Guinard, Froger and Merceron successfully applied for contracts for these CCF’s: Camions Citerne feux de Forêts (lourds). More than a thousand times their base was a former GMC army truck. The constructors derived them from American dumps such as the one in Parc de Vincennes close to Paris.

GMCs were appreciated because of their 6 wheel drive. Both closed cabs and open cabs were used by constructors who sometimes reshaped fenders, elongated cabins and lowered head lights. The latter made them loose their characteristic ‘lights behind grids’, but was an obligatory adjustments on demand of French authorities. Whatever all these adjustments, they could not be mistaken for anything else but GMC’s! What had not been changed were there petrol engines, unlike what happened to many other post war GMC’s. The costs of these fire engines was approximately 8000 euro a piece. French fire brigade did not only use GMC’s for tanker-pumpers but also as a tool carrier, Le Roi air compressor, tanker, breakdown lorry or as a mobile command post. However, within the official Services Departementales d’Incindie (SDI) GMC’s do no longer play an active role since the 80s. Some of them are still kept as a kind of reserve or just for sentimental reasons.

Have a look at the following examples of French fire engines.

GMC CCKW 353 equipped by Froger and formerly belonging to 'SDI Maine et Loire'
(courtesy of Pierre Phliponeau)

GMC CCKW353 cargo (courtesy of Herman Steendam)

(the above two pictures are kindly lent to me by photographer Alain Lesaux, AL BP 123 -53021 Laval Cedex, France)

Another French bush fire fighter (courtesy of Bram Leeman)

The GMC (1950) that once inspired the modelleurs of MMT (check quests)

Although not as popular as in France, a few fire brigades in Sweden, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Poland and The Netherlands have chosen GMC CCKW's as a base for their fire fighters. As for the Dutch fire brigades I arrived at twelf brigades up to now (consult the next table for details).

Council	Duration	Outfit built by	Liscence plate

Soest	1949 -1966 (?)	Boudewijn-Bean	RJ-87-37
Veenendaal	1949 -1966	Boudewijn-Bean	RB-84-86
Helden	1957 - 1978	Boudewijn-Bean	SB-71-54
Heerenveen	1951 - 1966	Bikkers-Reichert	PB-34-39
Vaassen	1954 - 1967	Heering	RA-87-84
Harskamp	1950 - 1972	Boudewijn-Bean	NB-22-33
Ede	1950 - 1966	Boudewijn-Bean	NB-25-84
Ruurlo	1951-1964	Van Bergen	NB-12-75
Ambt-Delden	1953-?	Van Bergen	NB-78-39
Oldebroek	1949-1958	Wijnveen	NA-97-76
Venray	1955 - 1963	Geesink	RB-07-82
Emmen	1946 - 1954	Van Weeghel-Kronenburg	NB-24-02

Until recently I feared that eleven out of twelfof these GMC's ended their carreers in scrap yards. The one exception was the one owned by Soest council which had been perfectly restored (for details of this project consult www.brandweersoest.nl ). In February 2010, however, members of the fire brigade Peel & Maas, department Panningen Helden, saved their old GMC from a scrap yard as well. The restauration has recently started. Check the progres at www.brandweerhelden.nl .

Council Soest (courtesy of Soest fire brigade)