A U.S. Fire Service First: Two All-Electric Pumpers

Less than a year after it purchased its first electric pumper, Boulder, CO, Fire-Rescue (BFR) made history by becoming the first U.S. department to operate two electric pumpers.

It all started at a BFR push-in ceremony a few years ago, when Battalion Chief Travis Richen started to chat with someone about electric fire apparatus. As the conversation continued, the other person took off his coat and revealed a city council badge.

A mandate from Boulder’s city council directs city departments to seek alternate fuel opportunities, particularly electric vehicles (EVs), when possible. With the need to replace one pumper relatively quickly, BFR already was in the apparatus-shopping mode. Richen’s conversation with the councilmember spurred talks among others in the department’s administration. That turned into a research project, and Richen was directed to investigate.

The investigation

Richen was assigned to learn all of the particulars of electric pumpers. A team of Richen, Lt. Jeremy Felix, Engineer Scott Falconer and then-Firefighter (now Engineer) Hannah Grady sought out Rosenbauer and Pierce Manufacturing.

“My mission was to make sure that [an electric pumper] supports what we do,” Richen tells Firehouse. “Ideally it operates as any one of our front-line apparatus would with no possibility of a service delivery interruption.”

The Rosenbauer RTX pumper’s origin— it began with matching an ergonomic machine to the end-user—intrigued team members.

“I was super excited,” Grady says. “It’s just a very progressive outlook, especially when it comes to fire engines. I was super interested in learning … what the differences were going to be, if there were any, and going from there.”

Demonstrations of the RTX were taking place on the East Coast, so the team went to South Carolina to get answers to questions about the apparatus. The team spent a day-and-a-half seeing and testing operations up close. The team also went to Los Angeles to see the Los Angeles City Fire Department’s in-service RTX as well as to Madison, WI, to see the Madison Fire Department’s Pierce Volterra electric pumper.

The mission in Los Angeles, Richen explains, was to hear from the engineer, the firefighter, and the captain in that station.

Richen had to bring evidence to BFR Fire Chief Mike Calderazzo. Calderazzo had the duty of getting the fleet team and the city manager’s office on board.

“What really sold me on it was [Rosenbauer representatives] bringing the demo out and having us ride in the vehicle with them and watch them pump,” Calderazzo says.

The RTX pumper “was engineered to a point where it felt like a final product,” Richen states. “[Electrification] didn’t feel like an afterthought.” 

Another big reason that BFR chose Rosenbauer: Rosenbauer will cover defects in materials and workmanship for the next five years.

After purchasing the first RTX, BFR received a $1.1 million grant from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, and the second purchase was made.

Benefits and features

Electric pumpers bring a variety of benefits. The BFR team grasped several of them prior to purchasing, but training on the vehicle hammered home some of the less obvious factors:

• Overall noise of apparatus is reduced significantly.
• The storage of heavy tools in compartments that are on the vehicle is accomplished in a way that permits firefighters to directly slide out and lift the tools.

Exposure to fumes from cold-starting diesel vehicles inside of the apparatus bay is eliminated.

“Hopefully, we’re going to see a reduction in repetitive injuries, and maybe we’ll see one less cancer diagnosis,” Richen says.

Because of the reduced noise while the RTX is running, firefighters can talk with each other without headsets.

“It’s not even your normal pump panel,” Calderazzo says. “I was just shocked by it. You pull off this little tablet computer, and you just push these little buttons, and you’re operational.”

Learning curves

In the fire service, change is a difficult concept. It can be particularly so when an electric pumper is purchased, and diesel apparatus are all that members have ever known.
There are more than 100 BFR firefighters. The transition took a lot of talk at the kitchen table and a “soft launch” to get buy-in from around the department.

The heavy lifting came from the build team. Two more engineers were brought on for more feedback. Richen soft-launched the RTX mechanical systems months before the building process. The team was able to bring back its experiences to the manufacturer to discuss.

“The build team did the hard cultural work, and they are the reason why this RTX is a success at Boulder Fire,” Richen explains.

Structured training started when the first RTX was delivered. Because those who already participated in the soft launch had basic knowledge, they were able to do more during Rosenbauer’s BFR-specific training than they would have otherwise.

Those who Rosenbauer trained turned around and trained the front-line members. (Every member is required to do awareness-level training to understand the basics of the RTX.) Then, BFR mirrored the state certification processes for pumping and driving.

“As far as normal operations—pumping and driving—that’s been really fluid,” Grady tells Firehouse. “However, the operation on the truck of how we’re going to pull hose, how we’re going to load the hose, the procedures of those operations, are things that we didn’t foresee.”

Most of the response throughout the process was, as Grady phrases it, “positive hesitance.”

Nevertheless, “It was very intuitive, very easy to use, even for old schoolers like me,” Calderazzo says.

Every engineer at the stations where the pumpers operate as well as roving engineers are certified to drive.

Road bumps

As potential issues are discovered, standards will be written to address them. Calderazzo also wants to assess the long-term cost of the vehicles, their uptime and how much the vehicles are going to cost to maintain. He also wonders about accidents while en route to incidents, given the quietness of the vehicles making it a little bit harder to notice.

“The biggest learning curve is realizing the [pumpers] actually think” Grady says, “whereas with our other [pumpers], we’re the ones in control.”

The future

BFR’s first RTX was put into service in early January of 2024. It saw its first action at a fire soon after that. Despite temperatures in the single digits, the apparatus performed like a champ.
After receiving the first rig and figuring out some bugs, BFR sent it back to the local dealer after they were able to get the second RTX in service. 

Thus far, the rigs have lived up to expectations, according to Richen, Calderazzo and Grady. That said, it will be a continual effort to improve systems and operations surrounding the EVs.

Another matter with which the department has been confronted: Chiefs throughout the region have turned to BFR to see how the situation works out, according to Calderazzo, because those others are looking to electrify but seek to understand the substantial commitment.