Despite facing 19 staff vacancies, the Des Moines (IA) Fire Department (DMFD) just opened the $8.2 million Station 11 on the city’s northeast side, reports kcci.com.

In addition to partnerships with neighboring departments—Altoona and Johnston in particular—DMFD has two recruiting classes set to start over the next year to help build crew, the report says.

The Canton of Basel-Stadt’s (Switzerland) fire department has ordered four all-electric firefighting vehicles from Rosenbauer’s “Revolutionary Technology” (RT) model series. The world market leader in firefighting equipment has thus received the first fleet order for the innovative municipal firefighting vehicle following its sales launch in September of the previous year. The Group currently has a total of 19 firm vehicle orders and over 20 reservations. Thanks to its unique vehicle architecture, which was only made possible by the alternative drive system, the RT sets new standards in ergonomics, digitalization, and ecology. According to initial customer feedback, well over 90% of all operations can be carried out under all-electric battery power without the range extender generating power. The Basel-Stadt fire department employs around 100 people and most recently has been called out more than 2,900 times a year.

Related Articles:
E-ONE® Receives Order from Mesa (AZ) Fire and Medical Department for Vector™, North America’s First Fully Electric Fire Truck
Mesa (AZ) City Council Approves Purchase of First All-Electric Fire Truck in North America
Zeus Electric Chassis and EAVX Join to Create Vocational Work Trucks

“The first fleet order for a new product is always something special. Thirty years ago, it was a Swiss airport fire department that put the first PANTHER into service, and with it we defined a new vehicle category,” says Dieter Siegel, CEO of Rosenbauer International AG. “I am all the more pleased by this renewed vote of confidence from the Basel-Stadt fire department. This order makes it one of the first users of this pioneering technology, which we intend to implement in other vehicle types in the future.”

The Rosenbauer Group has set itself the goal of offering at least one vehicle with electric drive in every vehicle category by 2023. In doing so, the Group is relying both on corresponding structures for commercial electric chassis, such as the Volvo FL Electric, and on its own developments. Rosenbauer estimates that the global market volume for the RT and comparable technologies alone will be around 3,200 vehicles by 2030; between 700 and 800 such vehicles could also be in service in Europe by 2025.

Dexter (NM) Fire and Rescue will receive $300,000, while the Berrendo Fire Department will be awarded $134,000 in state grants for new equipment, reports rdrnews.com.

Dexter fire officials say their money will be used to cover the cost of a 1,500-gallon-per-minute tanker, as the department currently has a 1981 semi tractor-trailer tanker that carries 6,800 gallons of water but only pumps 70 gallons per minute, according to the report.

Berrendo fire officials say their funds will be used to cover the cost of replacing self-contained breathing apparatuses.

The grants are among the $20 million for the 100-plus fire departments in 28 NM counties authorized by the New Mexico Fire Grant Council. The grant money comes from the state’s 3% tax on automobile and fire insurance.

Leechburg (PA) firefighter Jim Vigna recently did something that few have done in the last 50 years: He started the company’s retired 1935 Seagrave fire truck, reports triblive.com.

The department acquired the roughly 25-foot, two-person, open-cab truck the year it was built in Columbus (OH), and it served the area until 1969—four years after Vigna joined, according to the report. Officials say Vigna, 79, is the only firefighter still alive to have driven the truck to fires when it was in service.

It took him 10 years to refurbish the apparatus; officials say the front and back ends were damaged, the tailgate was warped from towing, and it rusted from decades of underuse. The report notes he now regularly maintains it and it’s still used in parades and funerals—though of course not for calls anymore.

The majority of its equipment is original—and thus obsolete, and in some cases even unsafe—and each cylinder has two sparkplugs; there’s no fuel pump, power steering, or power anything, officials say. Its top speed is 40 mph, it holds just 100 gallons of water, and it can be started with a crank if need be. The rear carries four firefighters, the report says.

Leechburg firefighter Jim Vigna revs up the 1935 Seagrave pic.twitter.com/UmSdULPApv

— Mike D. (@MikeJdiVittorio) November 2, 2021