 Mk 1 Atego Fire Appliance | |
| Mercedes-Benz Atego Fire Appliance Series | |
|---|---|
| How long LFB (London Fire Brigade) have used it: 2002 (debut)- Present Day | ... |
Mercedes-Benz Atego Fire Appliances edit
Mercedes-Benz Atego Fire Appliances London Fire Brigade (All Versions) edit
- Origin
First released in 1998, Mercedes-Benz (German automobile manufacturer) created the Atego, a commercial vehicle for businesses to use all around the world to haul small amounts of goods around a country/countries. Eventually, the Atego got larger in size so that they could haul more items long distances. In 2003, the London Fire Brigade needed to begin replacing their most common fire appliance at the time, the Volvo FL6 Saxon. They also needed to upgrade sizes of fire appliances and the cab of the FL6 was only capable of carrying 5 firefighters (sometimes 6 depending on if someone got in for a moment or there was an extra Pump rider for a duty). The appliances would soon (in 2005) be required to carry 6 or more firefighters. In 2004, a new model of the Atego was released and so, Mercedes-Benz volunteered to build fire appliances and offered them to the UK, Europe, Russia, Asia and the U.S.A. They would call this the Mercedes-Benz Atego F.A (Fire Appliance). Fire brigades in the UK took to the Appliances brilliantly, Most fire departments in the U.S denied use of the Mercedes, Russia denied use of the Appliance completely, Central Europe accepted the use of the Appliance but eventually phased it out and replaced it due to costs and Asia accepted but only bought a few hundred and used them only for Major Incidents (Earthquakes, Tornadoes e.t.c). The two UK Fire brigades that bought and used the Appliance the most and treasured them was the Essex and London fire brigades. The London Fire Brigade very quickly exchanged older, outdated Appliances like the Volvo FL6 Saxon and replaced them with Atego Appliances.
- Early London Fire Brigade life
The London Fire Brigade first used the Mercedes-Benz Atego Fire Appliance in the year 2003 (immediately after it's development) and quickly, the brigade understood how revolutionary the machine really was. The extra seat meant that more Firefighters could attend incidents, cutting the time it takes to resolve a problem by 20%. Within a year of use with the LFB, they stopped using the Volvo FL6 completely. The Atego had been an 'overnight success'. The Atego quickly became the most popular of the appliances that the LFB used and 90% of Appliances were Ategos meaning that all 1 Appliance station had it. 85% of all double Appliance station had only Ategos. 30% of all 3+ appliance stations (HQ, Greenwich) were only Ategos. LAUGH