“From Fire-Fighting Vehicle to Mobile Home: The Haettich Family’s Adventure Across North America”

– Fire service vehicles have a special attraction. But he can claim to live in one? The Haettich family converted a fire-fighting vehicle that was once stationed in Franconia into an Elefanti mobile home. And has big plans.

A story almost like something out of 1001 Nights: Late in the dark on the A 7 autobahn – thousands of kilometers from the deserts of Morocco towards Lower Saxony already behind them, a couple paused briefly in the driver’s cab of a home-made mobile home: their attention was drawn to a large notice board which closed invites you to take a short detour into the orchard landscape of Burgbernheim.

Thought – done. Sascha Haettich and his wife Romana set the direction indicator and spontaneously steer towards the pretty town on the Frankenhöhe. They pitched their tents for two days at the RV site in the Gründlein.

The old home of the fire engine

The reason for the unplanned detour: The trained architect at the wheel steers a 37-year-old Iveco, which five years ago as a fire-fighting vehicle under the name Florian Burgbernheim 40/2 managed many a delicate fire-fighting operation. Today the gray twelve-tonner is called “Elefanti”.

So he was christened by the two children Julius and Flora, who were on board in the fund of the all-wheel drive heavyweight. It is the family’s first visit to the Frankenhöhe and may well be their last. Because after a short maintenance stop in northern Germany, the Haettichs, who recently sold their house near Lüdenscheid, will emigrate by ferry from Hamburg with Elefanti to Canada.

A new life in Canada

The next adventures are already firmly in the route plan for the former 250 hp fire engine: From Halifax it will first head north to Alaska before the LF 16 emergency vehicle, formerly equipped with a rescue spreader and breathing apparatus, will cross the Rocky Mountains and even the famous Highway 1 should cope. The path will continue through the United States, Mexico and Panama until the family finally wants to build a new life in Canada.

The former Burgbernheim fire engine LF 16 on an emergency trip in 2017.
© Stefan Schuster

The couple found the disused fire engine on the Internet and bought it from a car dealer in Schneverdingen, Lower Saxony. After the conversion phase, they started their first major trip to North Africa last October. They are full of praise for their new mobile home, reliable and with personality – just as they have been for decades with blue lights and sirens in the service of the population on the edge of the Aischgrund. When they left Burgbernheim, they definitely wanted to have a look at the fire brigade equipment house – the old home of Elefanti.