Washington D.C.’s oldest fire boat, and the only one that also serves as an icebreaker, is back in the water again after being out for repairs for years, wtop.com reported.

Mayor Muriel Bowser joined Fire Chief John Donnelly to officially welcome back Fireboat 1, the John Glenn, in a ceremony held Monday, June 9, 2025. The fire boat returned to service in April after extensive repairs.

The vessel, built in 1962 and obtained by D.C.’s fire department in 1977, was out of service to get its regular 5-year check. However, upon inspection, officials determined the ship’s condition was more dire, the report said.

The bill for all the work that needed to be performed on the fire boat came to $2.5 million, according to the report.

The department is currently working with a marine architect to design a new state-of-the-art fire boat.

The mayor also presented D.C’s dive team with an award for their efforts following the January mid-air plane crash. Because it was under repair in Baltimore, the John Glenn was not available for deployment during the January recovery efforts.

The post D.C. Fire and EMS’ Fire Boat Back in Water After Years of Repairs Are Completed appeared first on Fire Apparatus: Fire trucks, fire engines, emergency vehicles, and firefighting equipment.

The full order includes a Pierce Volterra electric pumper and six additional Pierce apparatus, reinforcing Frederick County’s commitment to firefighter safety and sustainability.

APPLETON, Wisconsin (June 10, 2025) – Pierce Manufacturing Inc., an Oshkosh Corporation (NYSE:OSK) business, announced the Frederick County, Maryland Division of Fire and Rescue Services (DFRS) has placed an order for a Pierce^® Volterra™ electric fire truck, reinforcing its commitment to environmental sustainability and firefighter health and safety. The order, secured through Pierce dealer, Atlantic Emergency Solutions, includes six additional fire apparatus to enhance operational readiness and emergency response capabilities across the county’s 29 fire stations.

The Pierce Volterra electric pumper is scheduled for delivery in late 2025, allowing Frederick County time to complete necessary infrastructure upgrades to support the new apparatus. The purchase was partially funded by a grant from the Maryland Energy Administration, which helps municipalities invest in clean energy solutions for public services.

“Placing the Pierce Volterra EV into service reaffirms our commitment to environmental sustainability and, more critically, to the health and safety of our first responders,” said Frederick County Fire Chief Thomas E. Coe. “We feel strongly this new electric fire engine not only allows us to provide critical emergency services in a sustainable manner but also helps us achieve our goals of a healthy work environment for our fire/rescue responders. The reduced diesel emissions, when running on batteries, will help protect our firefighters from carcinogenic exhaust exposure and help contribute to clean air in our communities.”

Key features of Frederick County’s fire apparatus order include:

Pierce^® Volterra™ Electric Pumper

• Pierce Enforcer™ custom chassis with seating for six
• TAK-4^® Independent Front Suspension
• Side roll and frontal impact protection
• 246 kWh battery solution with a six-year warranty
• Consolidated high-voltage integration for safety and efficiency
• 1,500 GPM single-stage pump and 750-gallon water tank
• 152” body with standard compartmentation
• Zero-emissions pumping and driving when running on battery power with seamless backup power from an internal combustion engine

Enforcer Ascendant^® 107′ Heavy-Duty Tractor Drawn Aerial

• Pierce Enforcer custom chassis
• TAK-4 Independent Front Suspension
• Side roll and frontal impact protection
• PACCAR MX-13 510 HP engine

Enforcer Ascendant 100’ Heavy Duty Aerial Tower

• Pierce Enforcer custom chassis
• TAK-4 Independent Front Suspension
• Side roll and frontal impact protection

The Eastman (GA) Fire Department announced recently the long-awaited arrival of the newest engine to the fleet, the department said in a Facebook post.

Engine 11, manufactured by E-ONE, will be housed at Station 1 and will allow the department to rotate the fleet, help maintain its ISO grade, and give the citizens reliable equipment in the event of an emergency, the post said.

Engine 7 will be moved to backup engine status and will also be used for training. This will allow the department to have a truck on standby when a primary truck is being serviced as well as allowing our firefighters the ability to conduct more in-depth training.

The truck brings Eastman’s total fleet to four engines, a brush truck, and a rescue truck.

The post Eastman (GA) FD Takes Delivery of New Engine appeared first on Fire Apparatus: Fire trucks, fire engines, emergency vehicles, and firefighting equipment.

To say that what the fire service is experiencing now when it comes to apparatus purchasing is unprecedented is an understatement, but one that should be put in perspective. Fire apparatus manufacturing is a competitive market producing parts and finished vehicles, mostly custom, that Americans across the country rely on in a crisis. In the years since the pandemic, the fire apparatus market has experienced rising costs and increased lead times for apparatus delivery. The Fire Apparatus Manufacturers Association (FAMA) closely tracks trends in this important market and offers the following data and analysis to provide the facts and context for current industry-wide purchasing conditions.

Figure 1

After disruptions associated with the financial crisis of 2008 to 2010, the fire service industry experienced a period of relative stability in terms of fire apparatus ordered and shipped. Figure 1 shows both booked and shipped orders between 2011 and 2024. The average baselines for this period are shown as dotted lines across the width of the graph.

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in late 2019 and into 2020 introduced several disruptive factors that included restrictions on travel, focus on public health and emergency response, protection of personnel, inconsistent labor availability, and key material shortages. Travel restrictions meant that apparatus purchasing committees could no longer meet in person, which along with the other disruptions, led to a 12% drop in bookings for fire apparatus in 2020. When the United States emerged from the pandemic in 2021 and 2022, pent-up demand for new fire apparatus, augmented by increased municipal budgets from federal pandemic recovery legislation, resulted in orders spiking to 45% above the pre-pandemic baseline.

The rapid increase in booked orders, combined with the fall in shipped orders, resulted in an unprecedented imbalance and a corresponding backlog, which meant much longer lead times.

Fire apparatus manufacturers operate in a competitive marketplace, including approximately 55 apparatus manufacturers in FAMA. All these manufacturers are feeling the market disruptions across skilled labor and supply chains. While larger manufacturers would see a greater impact because of the larger number of units affected, the FAMA data point to all apparatus manufacturers experiencing similar conditions, making the current purchasing atmosphere an industry-wide condition.

To explain further, fire apparatus manufacturers operate in a competitive marketplace. Each manufacturer has specific strengths and offerings, and all must comply with various automotive standards as well as National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) guidelines. Component manufacturers also have fields of expertise and specialization and must design, manufacture, and market in the same competitive environment.

Compared with other vehicle manufacturing industries, the overall fire apparatus market is very small. Low volume and a high degree of customization mean that, on a per unit basis, specification writing, engineering, and manufacturing have longer lead times with significant resource requirements. Fire apparatus manufacturing facilities t