It looks like it floats through the air. But it’s just a system that lifts the car above the ground while the aerial ladder goes over 50 meters in air, right in front of the Saint Peter’s Church in Hamburg, Germany.
The top high-end technology made a show in Hamburg, in front of a cathedral that is almost a millennium years old. The fire department in Hamburg went through a fire simulation right in the city center. People stopped and stared at the amazing demonstration of the Mercedes-Benz Atego, completely rising 15 centimeters above the cobbled pavement in front of the building and stretching a telescopic ladder 70 meters into the air, to reach the cathedral clock tower.
Every manoeuvre is controlled vertically and horizontally, from the base of the ladder. 30 minutes from the beginning of the simulation, the ladder is back in the inceptive position.
People have filmed the impressive display of power and posted it on youtube.
As previously mentioned, the amazing floating octopus-like machinery monopolizing the Hamburg city center is a Mercedes-Benz Atego fire truck, with a 245 HP 6-cylinder diesel turbo and a 6-speed automatic transmission. It uses a 1800-liter water tank, a 200-liter foam maker tank and a 2-stage autopomp, pumping out between 1 200 and 2 400 liters per minute, when connected to a fireplug. The fire truck also features an electrical siren and a horn siren.
The German fire department also uses the Mercedes-Benz Unimog U 5000 chassis. All vehicles are especially equipped by Ziegler. Most of Germany’s 1,383,730 fire fighters are members of the Freiwillige Feuerwehr (voluntary brigades).
Similar vehicles are used in Belgium and Netherlands, but also in Great Britan, where all the former fire vehicles fleet was gradually replaced between 2002 and 2010 with the modernized Ategos. They now use over 200 new Mercedes-Benz fire engines.
