Photo credit: Leo Kaufman for LAFD
The Los Angeles Fire Department’s first electric fire truck, the Rosenbauer RTX, has arrived at LAFD Station 82 in Hollywood. This is the first electric fire engine in North America and features two batteries with a charge capacity of 100 kilowatts, providing enough power to operate for approximately two hours on a full charge. There’s an onboard diesel generator as backup, along with a secondary small diesel engine for redundancy.
How much does one of these electric fire trucks cost? Well, a Rosenbauer RT is priced from $900,000 USD, and the LAFD’s fully decked out model set them back around $1.2 million. When parked, the engine is automatically deactivated, but the lighting and equipment use the batteries to remain powered. Then there’s Big Wind, the massive tank-sized fire truck powered by two MiG-21 jet engines.
- Eye-catching black design, compact at 28 lbs, 220 lbs max load. Age: 16-50. Height: 3.11-6.6".
- High-performance battery: Dual 400W motors, 10 mph max speed, 13.7 miles per charge, 15° slope.
- Illuminating LED lights for visibility.
When we talk about firefighter health and overall well being, it’ll reduce and bring [diesel emissions] basically to nothing. And that’s a very important piece, at least from my perspective, that we are going to create the space for our firefighters to be healthier around our fire engines,” said Kristin Crowley, LAFD Chief.
