Electric Fire Truck Unveiled in Minneapolis – IOTW Report

Electric Fire Truck Unveiled in Minneapolis

Tuesday, 10 January 2023, 12:30 Dr. Tar Uncategorized 38

Firefighter Nation

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz took a ride in the first Minnesota-made Rosenbauer electric fire truck Monday to show off the apparatus.

The truck was made in Wyoming by Austria-based Rosenbauer LLC, and the governor called electric trucks the “future of firefighting” because they are eco-friendly.

“This is where the future goes for responding with the ability to be able to continue to provide that service, to do it cheaper and do it environmentally sound,” the governor said.

Rosenbauer has orders in other states, but so far none in Minnesota. That could change, as Walz announced that budgeted state funds for municipalities could be used on purchasing fire apparatus. Spiffy

38 Comments on Electric Fire Truck Unveiled in Minneapolis

  9. …given that a pumper may have to stay on the scene of an average EV fire for many hours more than an ICE vehicle, run many thousands more gallons of water through its pump to extinguish an average EV fire, and is very likely to be called out again pretty soon for a rekindle of an EV fire leaving no time to charge…are you SURE this is a good idea?

    On the local news they claimed it could be recharged in an hour like it was a good thing. – Dr. Tar

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  14. …bear in mind that driving to and from the scene is the SMALLEST task a fire pumper will be called upon to perform in an average run.

    Depending on configuration and intended role, a fire pumper may have to…

    *pump water (OF COURSE!). This is a VERY power hungry task to do all by itself, and you may be feeding MULTIPLE lines of varying diameter, from a 1 3/4″ attack line to a 2 1/2″ defensive line to a deck gun, and drawing all this water through a 6″ suction inlet that (again, depeding on the role) may be a HARD SUCTION that has to draw from a tank, resivour, or someone’s backyard pool and so doesn’t have any pressure pushing it IN. In a defensive posture, you may have MULTIPLE hand lines drawing several hundred GPM, and/or a deck gun drawing a couple THOUSAND GPM. If the fire is large, widespread, industrial, or has exposures on all sides, you may be there for HOURS just drawing water and throwing it on the adjacent buildings as well as into the fire that continues to burn in the involved structures. Those structures may or may not also contain a vehicle, maybe several vehicles, maybe BATTERY vehicles if it’s a factory with forklifts, maybe LPG vehicles, maybe a BIG tank of flammables somewhere inside or outside that is a CRITICAL exposure if you don’t want a catastropic BLEVE. And you want to trust a battery of unceratain and variable duration, epsecially in very hot or very cold weather and varying driving distances, with THAT?!? Good luck.

    *Run hydraulics for rescue tools (Rescue pumper configuration). The Jaws of Life, hydraulic shears, hydraulic rams, all are driven off a hydraulic pump. Hydraulic pumps pump at thousands of pounds of pressure. Thousands of pounds of pressure takes a lot of power. Power a battery that’s ALSO running a fire pump and other things may not have. Might make a car extracation interesting if they have to go to hand saws to cut you out.

    *Scene lighting. ANY fire truck is expected to provide SOME scene lighting, spotlights, floodlights, pole lights, etc., again for the ENTIRE duration of an incident. Granted that LEDs are not as energy hungry as the halogen bulbs of yore, but there’s STILL a SIGNIFCANT energy draw that you need THE WHOLE TIME, on TOP of the pump, the hydraulics, and the regular flashy revolvy lights and various and sundry noisemakers you use to get to the scene, AND the energy you lost GETTING to the scene, and you MIGHT want to be able to get back to charge your truck to be ready for the next emergency so you need some “Bingo Charge” number to assure you can get BACK from the scene, and given that this is a variable distance under variable conditions and variable loads, it’s pretty hard to put a number to this.

    *Auxilary power equipment. This is things like ventilation fans that can be the difference between saving a structure and saving a life or not because they can direct fire and smoke in the desired direction, hopefully away from unburned areas and/or dying people, as well as greatly improve the TRULY shitty visibility inside a building on fire. This sort of thing is often a corded appliance that plugs into a generator, but I’m not sure you would use your battery vehicle to drive a generator, but if your fans are 110 or 220, you would kinda HAVE to, on TOP of the pump, the hydraulics, and the regular flashy revolvy lights and various and sundry noisemakers you use to get to the scene, AND the energy you lost GETTING to the scene and the scene lighting and the need to be able to return to quarters for your special boy charger.

    …I’m leaving some things out, but also keep in mind you are dragging around tons of hose, tools, ladders, air tanks, guys, etc., ALL of which need to come BACK, as well as doing normal constant draw things like charging flashlights, powering radios, running AC or heat, keeping the dispatch computer and GPS live, and so forth, and maybe headlights would be nice? All of which has a CONSTANT power cost.

    And your job may not be done if your truck somehow keeps its charge through all THAT.

    …see, emergencies have this nasty tendency to be unscheduled, even inconvenient. So, your guys have got there, deployed, took everything off the truck, put wet on red, did the hot spots, helped in the investigation, walked the hoses, put them, the tools, the air tanks, and themselves back on the truck that by the grace of God still has enough power to get back to quarters…only to have the County call them out for a car fire that just started on the next block.

    Or they roll up on an auto accident.

    This isn’t an issue with a diesel truck, but what do you do with your electric? Tell them “We can’t, not enough juice, wait for mutual aid”? Deploy your guys and hope their hose stream doesn’t die while they’re making an attack on something with an entrapped victim? Pray your lights don’t go out when your truck is blocking a highway? What to do, what to do…

    …and do you have enough time at quarters to recharge your truck before the child care center catches fire due to food on the stove?

    …guess we’ll find out…

    …Again, there’s a TON I’m leaving out here, but this should be enought to show how stupid an idea this is. Emergency vehicles are used for unscheduled emergencies under emergency conditions for however long the emergency lasts, and battery power just cannot be trusted for emeregencies.

    This is asinine and extremely dangerous, and should not be done. Full stop.

    I had the distinct impression they were aiming for all kinds of federal grant money to pay for these out of someone else’s pocket and generate all manufacturing jobs locally to boot. – Dr. Tar

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  17. I also wonder if power considerations would change fireground operations.

    Lots of things here but one that comes immediately to mind is the water tank. Water weighs 8 pounds a gallon, and a truck may carry 500-1500 gallons of water in it to tide them over for the initial attack until a hydrant or a tanker or a pond can be accessed. Moving weight consumes power, so will they go with a 500 gallon tank to save 4 tons of weight to help the battery? This may dramatically affect your first-in attack strategy, especially in rural departments, which could lead to an inceased risk that an entapped person could die.

    And at the other end of the operation, you would typically fill your tank off the hydrant when wrapping up, so you have water immediately available. Common sense with diesel, but what if the engineer is worried about having enough battery to make it back to quarters so he makes a partial fill to save weight, or forgoes filling entirely to save weight, cut scene time, and not run his pump any longer than necessary?

    …so many questions, so much risk, and no upside other than truly stupid virtue signalling…

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  19. I know, me again. I’ll stop after this one.

    …so what do you do, really, if your company is called out and you only have a partial charge?

    Or do you list your apparatus with the County as OOS for the duration so they automatically call a distant station or Mutual Aid?

    …this is demented. They may as well ask the fire not to burn as it’s putting out WAY more carbon than the truck dispatched to extinguish it ever could, and the faster the truck puts it out the less carbon there will be…

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  20. No one in the reports I’ve seen seemed interested if citizens and/or their home and business insurance companies really thought it a good idea to trust their property and wealth to vehicles that have to rely on a battery in Minnesota cold weather.

    Perhaps the firemen will have to rely on multiple units to do the work a single ICE unit was doing by itself. Just like if you’ve ever used rechargeable batteries, you always end up bringing along multiple spares depending on your estimate of power usage. That way you can charge your back-up unit while operating your primary. I listen to a tiny rechargeable radio at night and always have a spare charged up as back up.

    And just think of all the manufacturing jobs for Minnesotans when local municipalities have to keep multiple units on hand to have enough charged back up units.

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  21. how much will it cost taxpayers to replace a fire truck battery?
    fire trucks are a first responder vehicle a dead battery would hinder an emergency

    it’s not just that electric vehicles catch fire, but they may also eject big parts in an explosion
    couple years ago I was driving on the NJTP & saw a utility truck on fire not to far up ahead, and then BOOOOM it blew up and truck parts went flying everywhere

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  22. Isn’t the Diesel Engine on those big ass fire trucks one big generator? There’s a lot of shit that draws power and the diesel is the source. So now they’re going to show up in something else that requires a charge? Not Logical.

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  23. Recharge in one hour!
    Gimme a break! With the battery capacity that is needed needed to run something like this they’ll have to park it next to a friggin nuclear power plant to get enough Kilowatts to recharge in an hour!!

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  25. Dr. Tar
    JANUARY 10, 2023 AT 2:10 PM

    $Perhaps the firemen will have to rely on multiple units to do the work a single ICE unit was doing by itself.”

    …wow.

    Your manpower in an aleady Vaxx depleted population of SKILLED labor that takes considerable time, effort, expense, and offline equipment use to get to State certification standards will be off the CHAIN if you do THAT.

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  26. …and how do you get the dead firetruck out of the way?

    …NOT recommended for wildland firefighting, BTW. Lots of times the wind shifts and you have to move your apparatus NOW.

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  30. Some people have actually kept electric bicycles in their high rise apartment buildings . It’s a sad thing to see that when the fire department responds and can’t enter the apartment where the fire was started by an electric bike’s battery the only way in to rescue a victim is by rope through a window. Then the fireman has to remove the victim and smash through a neighboring window where the fire hasn’t spread .

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  31. Worth noting that this is in Minneapolis, virtue signalling giant of the Midwest. It doesn’t need to actually work since, as evidenced by the Black Floyd Riots (apologies to Pink Floyd) they have no intention of actually using it for its stated purpose.

    It will be, after all, a mostly peaceful fire.

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  33. So while a building on fire is Billowing out Severe Toxic Fumes at least we know that the Electric Fire Truck isn’t adding any diesel fumes.

    Thanks Greta, Go get Phisted!

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  37. SNS,

    Don’t worry.
    They will Procure & buy a whole new class of “Generator Trucks” to pull up beside the Fire trucks & charge them as they deplete their electrical reserves.

    Do you want yours in YELLOW or RED?

    Personally I really like Yellow Fire Trucks (more exotic).

    Cheers!

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