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A close look at the rigs, tools and protective gear firefighters use, along with how they're built, cared for and changing.
Turnout gear and breathing apparatus come back from lithium-ion battery and energy storage system fires with a different contamination load. An amendment to NFPA 1850 gives officers and gear buyers a size-up for deciding when advanced cleaning is enough and when the gear needs specialized cleaning and testing.
An electric aerial under 16 tonnes, an electric crash truck at Dallas Love Field and four Pierce Volterra pumpers delivered this year.
Cities are now paying more than $1 million for custom pumpers, and some come with delivery dates four years out. Departments from Cheyenne to Tampa have taken stock and demo trucks, and others have priced prepayment or a rebuild.
A pair of frame rails cut for one truck, 11 assembly stations and a shift meeting before the work starts. Pierce opened up its chassis line in Appleton, Wisconsin, and it explains a lot about lead times.
Dallas Fire-Rescue is finishing a six-month test of a battery-electric Rosenbauer PANTHER 6x6 at Love Field's Station 21. The trial should show whether an electric crash truck can stay as ready as a diesel.
NFPA 1850 combines the old 1851 turnout-care and 1852 SCBA-care standards into one document; this program checklist covers what to change in roles, cleaning language, training, records, service life, and lithium-ion battery decon.
Some departments are paying to swap out every set they own. Others say no replacement is ready yet. The 2025 standard sets chemical limits, but its low-fluorine label covers less of the gear than many buyers assume.
Rosenbauer and MAN built a battery-electric aerial that weighs under 16 tonnes, light enough for German set-up areas that keep heavier ladders out. The first one went to the North Rhine-Westphalia fire institute at Interschutz 2026.
Sutphen's second tractor-drawn aerial gives up four feet of reach to come in nearly four feet shorter than its big brother. Asheville, North Carolina, bought the first one.
Before a Rosenbauer RT went to work at Hachioji Fire Station, it spent three weeks in acceptance testing in Austria under Japanese inspectors and Tokyo Fire Department officers. Hachioji wanted it for the day Mount Fuji drops ash on western Tokyo.