Welcome on the site of the Dutch Historical Fire engine
Association.
Since
1983 we've collected and restored several Historical Dutch fire engines. We are
not a museum where the public can visit us. 20 to 30 times a year we visit steam
and/or fire events in The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and the UK.
Our specialty is horse drawn fire engines which are fully operational.
in the folder "Ons materieel" (our
collection) you can see which fire engines are available for demonstrations.
In
the folder "Projecten" (projects) you can
find information on the current restoration activities.
We like to ask your special attention to our biggest challenge ever: The
creation of an 1:1 working replica of a self propelled steam fire engine. The
fire brigade of the Hague (our home town) once had three of these fire engines.
The project started in 2003 and is scheduled to be ready in 2008.
P.s. If you have any information (pictures,
drawings) of self propelled steam fire engines we like to get in cotact with you
!!
Information on our horse drawn steam
fire engines
Steam fire engine "VECHT" (1884)
In 1884 the firm Shand,
Mason & Co in London built a steam fire engine by order of the fire-brigade
of Amsterdam. This engine was traditionally named after a river: DE VECHT.
After attending at several fires, among others the famous huge fire in the
Amsterdam municipal theatre in 1890, the VECHT became a reserve engine in
1907. In 1912 the fire-brigade of IJsselstein bought the engine. In 1934 the
VECHT was replaced by a motorized fire engine.
In 1976 we discovered the VECHT and in 1979 we started to restore this
engine in a room at the fire-station in The Hague. Altogether it took us
about 8000 hours, but the finishing touch was given in 1982: the steam
license.
The engine is pulled by two horses and it's pump capacity is 1100 litres per
minute (about 250 gallons) at a pressure of 6,5 bar.
The Vecht is the
oldest working steam engine in Holland.
In 1908 the firm Bikkers &
Zn in Rotterdam built a steam fire engine by order of the fire-brigade of
Leiden.
This engine was actually used at the famous city-hall fire in Leiden
at a temperature of -24 degrees Celsius.
In 1985 we started to restore this engine. In Spring 1991, after about 3500
hours the engine was again in working order.
This engine is pulled by one horse. This is the only working steam fire
engine in Holland whereby water is heated with an oil-burner.
In 1996 we built a new boiler all by ourselves. We rejected the original
boiler because of safety reasons.
A steam fire engine at your event?
Don't
hesitate to contact us if you are considering to make use of one of our (steam)
engines.
As you can see on the picture we are fully equipped to come to your event.
Since
1983 we've collected and restored several Historical Dutch fire engines. We are
not a museum where the public can visit us. 20 to 30 times a year we visit steam
and/or fire events in The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and the UK.
In
the folder 
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