The Unimog is question is powered by a four-cylinder turbo diesel engine producing 218 horsepower (160 kilowatts), and is fitted with a seven-seater cab big enough to take the whole rescue team. The drop-side load bed can be loaded with "rescue modules" equipped for every eventuality, be it extracting passengers from a stranded cable car or searching for avalanche victims. An off-road trailer can be hitched up too, carrying boats, snowmobiles, and other heavy equipment.

Head of the Baden-Wurttemberg mountain rescue service, Lutz Scherer, said: "Emergency operations in difficult terrain are always particularly challenging for the rescue services and their materials. We are therefore very grateful that Mercedes-Benz Special Trucks is providing us with this Unimog. The vehicle is absolutely perfect for our specific requirements and it will help us to help victims in a much more appropriate way."

Although the vehicles have seen plenty of miles and emergency calls over the years, they are welcomed with open arms into the Blodgett-Summit department.

Davidson said the department needed the pumpers because more resources are necessary to respond to an increase in calls and it needed to replace aging equipment.

"They've been great so far," Davidson said. "They're class A custom pumpers, which means it has a bigger pump in it and the quality of the construction of the truck is good."

Because the department got two new pumpers, it decided to get rid of a 1976 class A pumper that had been used by the department as a reserve truck.

"We thought, 'What was the best thing we could do with this truck?' and the idea was to see if any smaller volunteer fire department around us could use it," Davidson said.

The Boone Fire Department jumped at the opportunity to get the pumper.

The Boone department had only one class A pumper and if that truck were to break down and go out of service for repairs they had no backup options except for two brush trucks, which are used for fighting brush and grass fires but aren't necessarily suited for other types of firefighting.

With approval from the Pueblo West Metropolitan District board, the pumper recently was donated to the Boone department and is now in its possession.