A "Löschzug" or short "LZ" is a formation of different firetrucks... like BASTIAN said, it various from city/state what units are in a "Löschzug". A "LZ" is a kind of convoy you ride with to a firecall (house fire, automatic firecall,etc). A typical Löschzug mostly consist of two fire engines which carry water to the scene, a ladder truck and the station chief with his car (he leads the incident). as an example: Our Löschzug consists of an "ELW" (chiefs car), two HLF's (combination of engine/rescue truck) and a "DLK" (ladder truck) another example: We also have "rüstzüge" in germany... thats our name for a formation of cars which ride to technical rescue calls (physical rescue assignments, etc)... also there are "gefahrgutzüge", formation of trucks for an incident with hazardous materials, etc. The word "...Zug" doesn't mean the word "train" which roll on rails The word "...Zug" is just an allusion to the formation we ride... all fire trucks in a row ride to a scene, that looks kind like a train, you know what i mean?