On 11 September 2026, at a quarter past five in the afternoon, a convoy of fire engines drove through Sucha Beskidzka, southern Poland, with lights flashing. That is how the 10th Podbabiogórskie Rescue and Firefighting Competition, Lachowice 2026, began.
The convoy drove from the State Fire Service station to the teams' campsite. A police car led the way, followed by command vehicles and then heavy fire engines: MAN, Volvo, Iveco, Scania, Renault, Mercedes-Benz, Steyr. An ambulance and a police car brought up the rear.
It was raining. The wet asphalt mirrored the blue lights, and many windscreens carried paper cards with numbers. I took the first photo at 17:15 and the last at 17:18.
The number plates show five districts: Sucha, Wadowice, Żywiec, Bielsko and Oświęcim. The signs above the windscreens name, among others, the volunteer fire brigades (OSP) of Baczyn, Bieńkówka, Błądzonka, Czaniec, Frydrychowice, Hecznarowice, Kocoń, Koszarawa, Krzeszów, Lachowice, Las, Łętownia, Mucharz, Palcza, Rybarzowice, Tarnawa Dolna, Targoszów, Wilamowice and Żywiec-Sporysz.
This was only the drive in; the competition tasks came later. Photos from the events will follow separately.
All photos of the convoy, every vehicle on its own: the gallery (captions in Polish).
