The Abilene Fire Department will soon have a ninth fire station, ReporterNews.com reported.

On Tuesday, Abilene residents by 70% voted for Proposition A on the ballot, a proposal to build a fire station in far south Abilene, just east of U.S. Highways 83/84 near FM 707, the report said.

Unofficially, 19,754 voted in favor to building the new station with 8,352 opposed. The bond was passing easily after early and absentee votes were announced, the report said.

The cost will be about $8 million, according to the report.

The following is from the city of Abilene’s website regarding Fire Station 9:

• The station would be located on 3 acres of City owned property on FM707, at the Beltway South and East 707 Spur, providing direct access to highway 83/84 and a station 9 service area of Far South Abilene.
• Fire Station 9 would respond to calls received from the interchange of Loop 322 and Winters freeway, down to Saddle Lakes Drive, and extending from the east side of Mesquite Forest neighborhood to FM 1750.
• Fire Station 9 would be an estimated 14,000 square feet in size, and home to a total of 12 new firefighters who would comprise one full firefighting crew. The station would include 4 double-sized apparatus bays, offices, and 6 to 8 bedrooms.
• The addition of a Fire Station 9 would reduce the coverage area of AFD’s Fire Station 8, enabling crews to improve response times from an average of seven minutes to five minutes or less, and best serve the projected future population of the fast-growing South Abilene.

A driver lost control of his vehicle and crashed into a fire station in Philadelphia overnight Wednesday, CBSNews.com reported. The crash happened around 2:30 a.m. on the 4500 block of Van Kirk Street in Wissinoming. 

Video shows the car has heavy damage to the front end, the report said. The crash also damaged the fire station’s garage door, putting the station out of commission for the night. 

No further information is available at this time. 

For the second time in three months, voters in Alpena Township nixed a tax increase for fire services, TheAlpenaNews.com reported.

On Tuesday, voters declined a 3-mill tax increase 2,537 to 2,085 — roughly the same margin that the tax failed in August — that would have fully funded the township fire department, added needed staffing, equipment, and helped the township save for future plans like a new south side fire station, the report said.

The millage failing forces the township Board of Trustees to formulate a plan for the department into the future. The board has had meetings to discuss its options should the tax fail, but nothing concrete has been considered, the report said.

A township official said the voters have spoken and now it is up to the board to come to an agreement on what the path forward is, according to the report.

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.

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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