The Citaro low-floor city bus is amazingly versatile. As a high-capacity ambulance for the Stuttgart fire brigade, it can even save lives.

A map of Stuttgart is always to hand on the dashboard up front. At the back, a floor-to-ceiling cabinet containing medication completes the interior furnishings of the Mercedes-Benz Citaro. It’s partially temperature-controlled, as many intravenous infusions need to be at body temperature. In between, there are ten seats for patients with minor injuries and four treatment stations with stretchers for serious cases. There is an additional station with a heavy duty stretcher opposite the second door. All the positions are fitted with an ECG, defibrillator, ventilator, suction unit, syringe pump and oxygen supply unit. Also on board is a Dynastart starter generator to supply 230-volt electricity when the motor is running. 

We are standing in the Florian 5/89-01, the working home of ambulance operators Paul Oort, 35, and Eckhard Wischmeyer, 56. Germany’s ambulances are often run by the fire brigade; when they are, they are always called Florian, named after the patron saint of firefighters. The “5” in the name of the specially fitted Citaro stands for fire and rescue station 5 of the Stuttgart fire brigade. 89 is the internal code for a high-capacity ambulance. The serial number follows. This is number one, as high-capacity ambulances are a rarity. Florian 5/89-01 is the only one of its kind in the entire Stuttgart region.

“We are always prepared,” emphasises Paul Oort. The high-capacity ambulance can be called out, say, to a fire at an apartment block or old-people’s home, a pile-up on the motorway or an emergency landing at a nearby airport. That is to say, anywhere where large numbers of casualties are expected. The special vehicle and its crew are also on high alert when large-scale, high-risk events take place, such as tricky football games between teams whose fans may get heated, political demonstrations or international conferences. At such times, the bus is kept ready to swing into action a few streets away. Thanks to its equipment, it can replace five normal ambulances.

Like taxi drivers, the ambulance crew has had to pass an examination in local knowledge. But they can’t know every small alleyway in Stuttgart and its surroundings. During the trip to the place of deployment, they work out how best to get there and talk to emergency staff on location to find out where to park. Travelling onwards with the injured passengers in a twelve-metre-long ambulance also has its pitfalls. “We know our hospitals,” Paul Oort says, highlighting the need to have a detailed understanding of every local clinic. They have practised every approach and there is always a detailed plan as to how to drive the Citaro up to any hospital.

“If you want to take the wheel, you have to have experience with large vehicles,” says Wischmeyer. After all, a Citaro is around twice as long as a standard ambulance. Once a year, special training is given by a driving instructor from the local transport company. For practice, he guides the ambulance drivers towards narrow streets and tight corners that no bus driver ever attempts. So narrow, in fact, that even the jutting front wheel of a parking car becomes a challenge. “Sometimes it’s a matter of five centimetres,” Wischmeyer explains, adding “during deployment, we sometimes have to drive up to a kilometre in reverse.” 

The Citaro has been deployed in Stuttgart since the end of 2005. It was bought by the state of Baden-Württemberg before the 2006 World Cup and built by Daimler Buses at the BusWorld Home in Plattling, Bavaria. Since then, it has covered around 65,000 kilometres. And not just in Stuttgart and the region. It has also been used many times for the transport of obese patients. Standard ambulances are unsuitable for people weighing 300 kilograms and more, and special vehicles are hardly ever found. The Citaro can do it, as its heavy-duty stretcher at its lowest level can hold up to 725 kilograms. 

Paul Oort describes his most strenuous deployment – four call-outs in total on New Year’s Eve 2014. First, he took a small child with a doctor, intensive care nurse and extensive materials from Stuttgart to Frankfurt; on his return he had to hurry to an emergency in inner-city Stuttgart, then a balcony fire, then an underground garage fire. But whatever happens: Paul Oort, Eckhard Wischmeyer and their high-capacity ambulance can be relied on. Connected to electricity and pressurised air, the Citaro, like the many other ambulances beside it, is always ready to go. Within just two minutes of an alarm, both operators are in the cab and rolling out of the depot – to their next deployment.