History of the Plant

The history of the Vargashi Firefighting and Special Equipment Plant, like that of many other enterprises in the Urals, began during the Great Patriotic War. It was one of 13 USSR machine-building enterprises evacuated to the Trans-Urals, forming the industrial foundation of the future Kurgan region. The enterprise was stationed at the machine and tractor station in the village of Vargashi. The first director, Yakov Ignatyevich Strizhak, organized production at the new location in the shortest possible time. The war adjusted the specialization — they began manufacturing aerial bomb casings. Up to 200 units per day were produced in the plant’s workshops. In the spring of 1942, they also began producing fuel tankers to transport fuel to the front lines. By this time, 69 men who had arrived with the plant from Torzhok were drafted to the front, and women and teenagers from Vargashi took their places at the machine tools. They worked 13-14 hours a day. The words “Everything for the front, everything for Victory!” were not just slogans for the plant workers. The front line ran through every machine tool.

In 1944, the plant, now managed by Alexander Pavlovich Legkov, returned to its primary focus — a decree by the USSR State Defense Committee restored the production of fire extinguishing equipment. The facility began designing a prototype tanker truck — this became the first Vargashi fire truck, the PMZ-7. It was a simplified open-type design on a ZIS-5 chassis, with a large water supply and a front-mounted PM-1200 pump. In 1945 (under the leadership of Pavel Pavlovich Balkov), the plant commenced serial production of this model.

In 1947, when the team was led by M.A. Shmayev, the Main Directorate’s special design bureau developed the PMZ-8 fire tanker on a ZIS-5 chassis. In the 1950s, the expansion of production areas began, and workshops were equipped with new machinery. In 1951 (Director Nikolai Dmitrievich Suyazov), vehicles were produced with a new tanker design, designated as the PMZ-11. Production of foam extinguishing equipment — foam generators — was mastered. Starting in 1957, by order of the national economy, about 4,000 special vehicles were produced — tankers labeled “Milk,” “Fish,” “Water”. The plant museum carefully preserves the memory of Mikhail Andreevich Lugovkin, Alexander Grigoryevich Puzoshchatov, and Afanasy Vasilyevich Volnov, who successively served as directors of the developing plant, contributing to the creation of its material and technical base.

Seven types of fire engines, high marks at all-Union and international exhibitions — this was the 1970s. These years became the most brilliant and productive for the Vargashi Plant. Nikolai Ivanovich Sidorenko, who managed the enterprise for 14 years — from 1973 to 1987 — rightfully shared these successes with the team. Anatoly Andreevich Suslov succeeded him as director. At that time, about 2,000 units of special equipment rolled off the plant’s assembly line annually. The skill and experience of the Vargashi Plant team were recognized not only in the USSR but throughout the world—their fire trucks fought fires in 18 countries, including the GDR, Japan, Turkey, Syria, North Korea, China, Finland, Bulgaria, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Mali, Ghana, Yemen, Egypt, and others.

In 1990, the plant (headed by Alexander Valeryevich Kachesov) produced 2,565 vehicles. In June 1995 (with V.A. Vakulchenko in the director’s chair), by order of the Main Directorate for Material, Technical, and Military Supply of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Vargashi Fire Equipment Plant and Specialized Repair Enterprise No. 4 were reorganized into a single entity — the Vargashi Firefighting and Special Equipment Plant.

Late 1990s – Early 2000s. These years were a time of instability in the country as the state transitioned to a new economic model. The plant’s fate mirrored that of most enterprises in Russia: production decline, debt, and bankruptcy. But even under those conditions, engineers and designers continued to develop more complex and efficient machines. For instance, in 1996, the production of the dual-cabin tanker truck 6-VR was initiated. During these difficult times, a 32-year-old bankruptcy manager, Vladimir Nikolaevich Kazakov, was appointed. With the support of the plant’s workforce, he managed to lead the plant out of legal and actual bankruptcy, preserve production facilities and skilled workers, pay off debts, and establish sales for the then-limited product range. The revived plant entered a new stage of development. Kazakov was appointed director of the enterprise.

These twelve years (from July 1998 to April 2010) marked a significant milestone in the plant’s history. The construction of the electrochemical coating workshop was completed. The first prototype of the “Lavina-Uragan” armored water cannon special vehicle was produced and adopted for service by the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs. By 2010, Vargashi was producing 30% of Russia’s firefighting equipment. This year, Vladimir Kazakov handed over the plant to a new director and went into politics.

February 2016. An anxious time for the enterprise, which once again found itself on the verge of bankruptcy. Over the six years that passed between V.N. Kazakov’s “first” and “second” arrival at the plant, the plant changed hands three times. The Arbitration Court of the Kurgan Region introduced a supervision procedure regarding the Vargashi Firefighting and Special Equipment Plant JSC. The significantly reduced team was preparing for the inevitable. But the block of shares was purchased by Vladimir Ivanovich Voronyansky, who is the owner of the unique plant today. He offered Vladimir Kazakov to return to the position of General Director. By September 2016, over 400 million rubles had been allocated to paying off accounts payable and developing the enterprise.

On August 16, 2016, the bankruptcy procedure was terminated. Today, the annual order portfolio is “worth” more than one and a half billion rubles. New models of special equipment have been mastered, including those for the needs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Vargashi vehicles are in demand not only in Russia but also in a number of neighboring countries and beyond.

The plant workshops underwent capital repairs and reconstruction; a modern paint and drying complex, a light tunnel, and a rain test chamber were built. Modernization allows not only improving product quality but also has a positive effect on its production cost. For instance, plasma cutting machines allow for reducing the use of expensive dies. The guarantee of quality is the mandatory fulfillment of regulatory requirements, compliance with the ISO system, and certification at all levels from parts to vehicle ergonomics. Currently, an internal audit of the technical service has been introduced at the enterprise, aimed at finding optimal variants and principles for vehicle design, organizing the design process, and establishing a tighter, faster link with production so that all technical solutions are implemented into the finished product as quickly as possible. In early 2020, the plant joined the national project “Increasing Labor Productivity and Supporting Employment,” aimed at optimizing production processes, reducing costs, lowering production expenses, improving product quality, and enhancing employee skills.

The design department is the brain center of production. The best evidence of its specialists’ professionalism is the plant’s 18 patents for its own technological developments. The model range of the main product line is continuously expanding: more than 50 models of tankers alone, aerial apparatus, pumping stations, hose tenders, and smoke removal vehicles—around one-third of all Russian fire engines are manufactured in Vargashi. At the same time, the main need of firefighters is taken into account: the constant development of special equipment capabilities while ensuring maximum financial affordability.

It was here, in Vargashi, that unique prototypes of fire and special equipment for the needs of the Russian EMERCOM were developed, manufactured, and tested, which have no analogues in Russia — the PSA-S fire-rescue vehicle and the AC-S tanker truck for rescue operations in extremely low temperatures; the TM-12 mobile ramp for emergency rescue operations at heights in residential and administrative buildings.

A special project was prepared under a state order for the 2014 Sochi Olympics — a fire-rescue vehicle for tunnel operations, which received the working title “Tyani-Tolkay” (Push-Pull). It is equipped with two cabins and can move in any direction within the confined conditions of tunnels, with the capability to evacuate up to 20 injured people and provide them with first aid. There are only a few examples of analogous equipment in the world.

The AL-52 aerial ladder, jointly released with a South Korean company on a four-axle KamAZ chassis, features a lifting height of 52 meters, video monitoring for movement and emergency stop, an automatic hydraulic leveling system, and obstacle and ground contact sensors.

The “Trap-S” multifunctional vehicle, designed for the mass evacuation of people with disabilities, children, individuals with impairments, and the elderly, is in service at one of the fire departments in the Chelyabinsk region.

Trans-Ural firefighting robots — which is what the radio-controlled fire extinguishing unit created at the plant is called — serve in EMERCOM detachments in the Moscow Region, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg, and Volgograd. Such “fighters” allow preserving the health, and even the lives, of firefighters.

In May 2018, the Vargashi Firefighting and Special Equipment Plant manufactured 15 light-class vehicles on the ISUZU ELF 7.5 (Russia) chassis for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.

In cooperation with the State Fire Service Academy of the Russian EMERCOM, a northern-variant fire engine was created, which has been serving in Khanty-Mansiysk for more than ten years and has proven itself excellently. In 2019, the continuation of the northern theme was the experimental model of the “Gefest” vehicle, designed to ensure the operability of pump-hose systems during firefighting and emergency response in low ambient temperatures. This is a fundamentally new vehicle intended to ensure the uninterrupted operation of fire equipment during the suppression of prolonged fires, including in Far North conditions.

Oil production companies occupy a special place among the enterprise’s clients. By order of the “Transneft” company, a unique pumping station unit was manufactured on an “Iveco-AMT” chassis, utilizing the best technologies from around the world.

A special vehicle created by order of Yamal SPG OJSC and equipped with the removable foam generator unit “PURGA-100” was sent to the northern gates of the Arctic — the port of Sabetta. The foam tower is indispensable for fires in liquefied gas storage tanks, as well as at process units in the oil, oil-refining, and petrochemical industries. In “peaceful” times, the tower can be used as a crane with a lifting capacity of up to 2 tons. In 2020, five units of equipment were manufactured for the Rosatom Сoncern, ensuring the fire safety of the world’s only floating nuclear power plant in the city of Pevek in Chukotka.

The enterprise’s special pride is the STRAZH airfield fire truck, created in 2020 jointly with the Bryansk Automobile Plant. This is yet another novelty, an interesting, original work by Vargashi designers. There has never been a vehicle like this in Russia before.