Special Delivery Alan M. Petrillo
The Los Angeles City (CA) Fire Department RTX, built by Rosenbauer, is an electric-drive pumper in service at its Fire Station 82 near Hollywood.
The pumper is powered by two Volvo Penta batteries of 66 kilowatts (kW) each, with a charge capacity of 132 kW, enabling fully electric operation for roughly two hours and covering around 90 percent of all applications, according to Todd McBride, Rosenbauer’s RTX sales and marketing manager. He notes driving performance of the RTX is 360 kW peak and 260 kW continuous, which is equivalent to 490 horsepower (hp) and 350 hp, respectively.
The RTX has a 173-inch wheelbase, a 4-stage electronic regenerative braking system with 17-inch disc brakes, an Automatic Braking System (ABS), an Electronic Stability Control System (ECS), and an Automatic Drive Management System (ADM), he says.
1 The Los Angeles City (CA) Fire Department has put in service an electric-drive pumper, the RTX, built by Rosenbauer. (Photos courtesy of Rosenbauer.)
department
Los Angeles City (CA) Fire Department
Strength: 3,400 paid full-time firefighters; 104 stations.
Service area: Provides fire suppression, hazardous materials mitigation, rescue, emergency medical services, fire cause determination, and fire prevention services to a population of 3.97 million people in the 502-square-mile city.
Other apparatus: 140 pumpers, 43 tractor-drawn aerial ladders, two hazardous materials units, two urban search and rescue units, six Type 3 wildland engines, four Type 6 quick response pumpers, one command vehicle, one 50-ton three-axle tow truck/heavy wrecker, six helicopters for air operations, seven boats for marine operations, and 94 advanced life support ambulances staffed by firefighter/paramedics and firefighter/EMTs.
Los Angeles Deputy Chief Richard Fields points out that the Rosenbauer RTX electric fire engine is an innovative tool that will help reduce noise and harmful diesel emissions and provide a flexible tool for firefighting and rescue operations from a technologically advanced platform. “We are one of the largest metropolitan fire departments in the country,” he says, “with 104 fire stations and 3,400 sworn firefighters.”
The Rosenbauer RTX electric fire truck is assigned to Fire Station 82 that covers most of the area just east of Hollywood. “It’s a single-engine station that also houses a rescue (an advanced life support ambulance) and a Type 3 wildland engine,” Fields states. “Station 82 is one of our newest and most m