Horní Podluží firefighters get Iveco Trakker tanker from Prague

Volunteer firefighters in the municipality of Horní Podluží in northern Czechia have received an Iveco Trakker AD3 tanker as a gift from their colleagues in Prague. The ceremonial handover took place on 10 October 2026; the vehicle previously served with the capital’s fire and rescue service.

According to the Požáry.cz portal, colleagues from neighbouring municipalities, guests from Germany and representatives of the Prague fire service came to the ceremony. After the necessary modifications and additional equipment, the vehicle has boosted the readiness of the local volunteers.

The handover itself almost fell through. A convoy of volunteers from Dolní Podluží, on its way to the ceremony, came across a car crash a few hundred metres from a ski slope. The firefighters secured the scene and, once they established that no intervention was needed, drove on.

But soon afterwards the operations centre sent a professional crew from Varnsdorf, together with firefighters from Horní Podluží, to the same crash, and part of the crowd hurriedly left the celebration. A few minutes later volunteers from Varnsdorf also arrived at the slope, but almost immediately turned around: they had been called to rescue a roe deer from a river. Only after this “game of chess”, and the return of the Horní Podluží firefighters, could the ceremony finally take place.

About the vehicle

The tanker on an Iveco Trakker chassis was built in 2010 and has 45,654 km on the clock. It became surplus property for the Prague service, but it is technically fully roadworthy for its age and has a valid technical inspection. The original purchase price of the vehicle alone was CZK 8,000,478. The municipal council approved the free transfer of the property in the public interest in June 2026.

The vehicle is built on a sturdy off-road chassis with an aluminium body and a roller-shutter system on the equipment compartments. The heart of the firefighting equipment is a powerful two-stage Magirus centrifugal pump (MPN 230 A) with a fully automatic Primatic priming system. The pump is protected against overheating by an automatic bypass line and reaches a working pressure of up to 16 bar, with a high-pressure section of up to 45 bar also available. There is also rapid-response equipment with hose reels and a roof monitor for delivering large amounts of water or foam.

Equipment and the firefighters’ own contribution

Along with the vehicle, the municipality received under the contract a Motorola GM 380 vehicle radio with a mounting kit, a Husqvarna 365 X-TORQ chainsaw and a Husqvarna K760 Rescue cut-off saw. The Horní Podluží volunteers themselves also bought and fitted additional equipment to prepare the vehicle for the specifics of their district. All the tyres were replaced, the body was given new livery, and the lighting and warning lights were renewed.

After all the formalities were completed, including registration in the vehicle register and removal of the old Prague markings, Horní Podluží gained a reliable partner for emergencies.

Around Prague, based on reporting by pozary.cz