The LF 16 fire truck was built in 1962 and left the factory hall of the former VEB Feuerlöschgerätewerk Luckenwalde 60 years ago. Now, it has unexpectedly returned to the place where it was made.
Colleagues from the Grossbreitenbach volunteer fire department in Thuringia went on a grand tour with the restored LF 16 and visited the traditional fire fighting vehicle factory in Luckenwalde, where Rosenbauer now manufactures state-of-the-art fire trucks for the German market. Technically a lot has changed over six decades, but the factory hall, where vehicle deliveries and firefighting equipment training still take place, has hardly changed.
Fire fighting equipment
The LF 16 of that era was built on the S 4000 chassis, which is still very appealing
Because of its nearly 100-year tradition of fire fighting equipment and vehicle construction, the hall is now a listed building. The LF 16 of that era was built on the S 4000 chassis, which is still very appealing, from the Werdau vehicle factory in Saxony.
Without power steering and with manual gear shifting, the operator brought the whole crew safely to the scene and back again to the fire station right up until 2005. From 1962 to 1971, the vehicle was used by the professional fire department of Neuhaus am Rennsteig and later by the Grossbreitenbach volunteer fire service.
For almost 15 years, it was then lovingly restored by dedicated colleagues, thus preserving a piece of the technical fire service history for future generations. The technical specifications of the vehicle make interesting reading. With a 400-liter extinguishing water tank and rear pump, it has a permissible service weight of just 8,100 kg. It is only 7.4 m long, 2.3 m wide, and 2.85 m high. And yet, for the needs of the time, everything required for firefighting and human rescue was fitted onto the vehicle.