Up to 14 fire engine vehicles will be acquired by the city of Vancouver over the coming years at a cost of about $26.6 million, dailyhive.com reported.

These new vehicles are needed to replace Vancouver Fire Rescue Services (VFRS) trucks that are approaching the end of their lifespan. They will run on renewable diesel to reduce carbon emissions.

City staff have noted that during the bidding process, the competing suppliers were asked to provide battery-electric trucks as an option for consideration for these new large vehicles, but they were later deemed unsuitable for reliable emergency needs as the technology is still in its infancy, the report said. More specifically, the proposed battery-electric trucks did not meet the minimum specifications for the water pumping capacity of fire operations, and the associated costs were significantly higher, the report said.

But Vancouver’s fire department will be extensively testing the use of a battery-electric model for small-sized fire trucks, according to the report.

The City’s 2023-2026 capital budget has also set aside $200,000 in funding to electrify 10 VFRS supporting vehicles and equipment. The largest future investment for the fire department, totalling $37 million, will largely go towards the renovation and expansion of Fire Hall No. 8 at the northwest corner of the intersection of Smithe and Hamilton streets in downtown Vancouver, the report said. There are also longer-term plans to relocate the West End’s Fire Hall No. 6, currently located at the southwest corner of the intersection of Nicola and Nelson streets, to a new facility on a different nearby site.

Special Delivery Alan M. Petrillo

The Liberty Township (OH) Fire Department is located southwest of Columbus and north of Cincinnati, covering a 37-square-mile district from two stations.

Its fleet consists of an engine, a rescue-pumper, an aerial ladder platform, and three advanced life support (ALS) ambulances, with the fire suppression rigs all built by Sutphen Corp. When it came time to retire the department’s 2004 Sutphen 110-foot Magnum aerial platform quint because of its age, Liberty Township again chose to go with a Sutphen aerial.

The rig that the department had Sutphen build is a SPH 100 aerial platform on a Sutphen Monarch heavy-duty custom chassis with a 73-inch four-door cab and 10-inch raised roof. “We decided to eliminate the water tank on the new vehicle,” says Duane Price, Liberty Township’s assistant chief and chairperson of its truck committee. “By not putting a water tank on the rig, we were able to carry three more ground ladders, which is important to us because we don’t always have the ability to get our aerial platform in front of a house or apartment building because of long, narrow driveways or long setbacks. We almost doubled the extension ladder capacity on the truck, which allows us to throw more ground ladders on a building.”

The new aerial platform carries one 35-foot two-section extension ladder, two 28-foot two-section extension ladders, two 24-foot two-section extension ladders, a 20-foot roof ladder, a 16-foot roof ladder, and two 10-foot folding attic ladders in two enclosed ladder tunnels and a 16-foot roof ladder affixed to the side of the aerial. “On our old platform, the ladders were carried on the outside of the rig,” Price notes, “but with the new truck, they are kept clean and out of the elements in the ladder tunnel.”

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