Mara H. Gottfried

Pioneer Press

(TNS)

St. Paul will be the first fire department in Minnesota with a fully-electric fire truck, the mayor and fire chief announced Wednesday.

Rosenbauer, a design and manufacturing company, has started the build process for St. Paul’s truck and delivery is expected by 2025. It’s planned to coincide with the completion of a new Fire Station 7 on the East Side.

The city is submitting federal funding requests to support the purchase. Information wasn’t immediately available Wednesday about the cost of the fire truck.

“It brings us all the critical green energy benefits of an electric vehicle, while meeting the high safety and efficiency standards we have for all our fire equipment,” Mayor Melvin Carter said in a statement.

The city’s “Climate Action & Resilience Plan” focuses on achieving carbon neutrality in city operations by 2030 and citywide by 2050. “In addition to furthering climate goals, this investment helps reduce diesel emissions and supports firefighters’ overall health and wellbeing,” the city said in a statement.

The fire departments in Los Angeles, Calif., and Vancouver, British Columbia, have also purchased the Rosenbauer RTX electric fire truck, according to the city.

The truck’s final assembly will happen at Rosenbauer’s facility in Wyoming, Minn.

• WATCH: MN Governor Unveils State’s First Electric Fire Truck

Airway Heights residents will have to vote to decide on the Future of the Spokane County Library District and the fire department services after the Airway Heights City Council adopts two ordinances for the August 1, 2023, Primary Election ballot. The first ordinance asks voters to consider annexing to the Spokane County Library District.
- PUB DATE: 3/16/2023 1:48:27 AM - SOURCE: KREM TV CBS 2 Spokane

The Shawnee Fire Department has installed a new station alert system designed to wake sleeping firefighters less abruptly for nighttime callouts.

The alerting system, which cost $150,000, wakes firefighters with a red light instead of a bright one and an alarm that starts softer before increasingly getting louder, KMBC reports.

The new systems, which replace the blaring horns that awaken firefighters, are designed to place less stress on the heart when firefighters are toned out in the middle of the night.

The department also hopes the new heart-healthy alerting system will make the workplace more appealing and help it attract and retain firefighters.

Two of the four fire stations in the Clallam 2 Fire Rescue District are too old to meet current building code and housing requirements and must be torn down and replaced. But there’s a problem. The lot sizes of both the Gales Addition and the Dry Creek stations are too small to build modern facilities.
- PUB DATE: 3/16/2023 12:30:39 AM - SOURCE: My Clallam County

A drone was used to spray water on a downtown Oswego building that was on fire for almost two hours Wednesday, firefighters said. At 3:11 a.m. firefighters arrived at 39 West Bridge St. to find a fire at the back of the second-story apartment building, according to a news release from the City of Oswego Fire Department.
- PUB DATE: 3/16/2023 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Syracuse.com