Sindelsdorf - The Sindelsdorf fire brigade needs a new vehicle.
The community decided in principle that the volunteers could get that too.
The paint is off, at least figuratively. Because the fire engine of the Sindelsdorf fire brigade is still glowing red. But it is no longer really contemporary and easy to care for. Therefore, a replacement vehicle should now be found, not now, but in the foreseeable future. The municipal council made a decision in principle in this regard. Nothing at all is dry yet, or to put it less figuratively: A new vehicle for the Sindelsdorf fire fighters has by no means been acquired yet. “It has not yet been approved,” emphasizes Mayor Andreas Obermaier (CSU) on the day after the municipal council meeting, in which only the basic decision to procure a new vehicle was made. However, a working group set up specifically for this purpose can now check the need and also look for offers,reports the town hall chief.
The current vehicle is 27 years old
The mayor can understand that a new vehicle is to be produced, after all, the current fire engine is already 27 years old - and a model that is no longer in demand these days. Although “a few modernizations have already been carried out” and the vehicle is “technically still in perfect working order”, it does not have a particularly large water tank. Obermaier speaks of a capacity of 600 liters. With a pumping capacity of 800 liters per minute, it doesn't take long and the tank is empty. "Now it should be 1,600 liters," says the town hall chief. Lots of water that can't do any harm, after all, the fire fighters are on the highway a lot as well as on the B472. But a new model is unlikely to come cheap to the community. The town hall chief knows that too, with costs between 300.000 and 480,000 euros are calculated. The mayor doesn't expect a new vehicle to be purchased so quickly, he says, maybe in three years.
Working group deals with topic
Commander and Deputy Mayor Gerhard Öttl (CSU) also believes that a new vehicle will “be put into service at the end of 2023 at the earliest, more likely in 2024”. The old model will then have to leave the garage. However, one by one. First of all, "the working group on the part of the fire brigade" will deal with the issue in detail, explains Öttl. The aim is to find a solution with great benefits and not too great costs for the community. Since such a solution is not yet available, Öttl is cautiously holding back with information about new acquisitions. "The most likely thing is to get an HLF10," he says, however, indicating a tendency. This vehicle would not really be larger than the current 'company car', but it would have a full THL load, including scissors and spreader, which are used in traffic accidents.Öttl estimates the costs at 350,000 to 400,000 euros, “without loading”.
High maintenance effort
Until a new vehicle rolls to Sindelsdorf, the current vehicle can still serve for a few years, even if it does not seem to be easy to care for.
“The maintenance effort for our existing vehicle is increasing at the moment,” says Öttl, looking at things like rust and wear.
Aside from maintenance, there is something else that makes the vehicle look old after 27 years of use: "The vehicle's load and equipment no longer completely match our current range of operations," explains the commander.