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10 April 2026
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Vintage: Fire engines collection, Technik Museum Speyer, Germany
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At the Technik Museum Speyer one of the largest collections of historical fire engines in all Europe can be admired, reaching from the beginnings of fire extinguishers up to the present time. Special rarities are the huge vehicles from the USA, particularly by Ahrens-Fox, which had been designed to fight fire especially also in and on high-rise buildings. Taming the fire was one of the most important steps in man‘s cultural development. The oldest depiction of a fire fight is about 5 000 years old and originated from a palace in Ninive in Iraq.
For ancient Rome it has been described that they had a brigade of municipal slaves for firefighting as early as 300BC. Their equipment already included a fire hose. Of course, the equipment, which kept becoming more bulky and heavier, had to be transported to the fire as fast as possible. In early times this first was achieved by special, mainly horse-drawn, wagons. Progressing motorisation brought steam-powered fire engines which in most cases, however, were too slow and unwieldy. In 1888 finally Daimler presented the first fire hose with a piston pump powered by a gasoline engine. A short while later the new technique was also used to drive the wagons. With this development the foundations had thus been laid for modern firefighting brigades.
Additional to the cars the Technik Museum Speyer shows a great number of articles of equipment of fire fighters from all over the world. Also the museum has two fire-fighting-boats and the fire-fighting-airplane Canadair CL-215.
Source: Technik Museum Speyer
For ancient Rome it has been described that they had a brigade of municipal slaves for firefighting as early as 300BC. Their equipment already included a fire hose. Of course, the equipment, which kept becoming more bulky and heavier, had to be transported to the fire as fast as possible. In early times this first was achieved by special, mainly horse-drawn, wagons. Progressing motorisation brought steam-powered fire engines which in most cases, however, were too slow and unwieldy. In 1888 finally Daimler presented the first fire hose with a piston pump powered by a gasoline engine. A short while later the new technique was also used to drive the wagons. With this development the foundations had thus been laid for modern firefighting brigades.
Additional to the cars the Technik Museum Speyer shows a great number of articles of equipment of fire fighters from all over the world. Also the museum has two fire-fighting-boats and the fire-fighting-airplane Canadair CL-215.
Source: Technik Museum Speyer
