Minnesota's Saint Paul Fire Department is embracing green energy, becoming the first fire service in the state to purchase an electric fire truck.  

"We’re excited to be the first in the state to invest in this state-of-the-art fire truck,” said Mayor Carter. “It brings us all the critical green energy benefits of an electric vehicle, while meeting the high safety and efficiency standards we have for all our fire equipment.”  

In 2020, Saint Paul Fire received demonstrations of the RTX from Austrian-based designer and manufacturer Rosenbauer, and again in January of 2023. Fire Chief Butch Inks said in a press release that he was impressed with the vehicle's overall performance and low noise levels. 

“Communication on fire scenes is important and can be extremely difficult, especially when six or seven loud diesel engines are operating in high idle," he said. 

The investment in the RTX is in alignment with the City of Saint Paul Climate Action & Resilience Plan, which focuses on achieving carbon neutrality in city operations by 2030 and citywide by 2050. This work includes strategies to lessen the impacts of climate change through policy and regulatory actions the city can take to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, adapt to the changing climate, and improve quality of life in the city. In addition to furthering climate goals, this investment helps reduce diesel emissions and supports firefighters’ overall health and wellbeing. 

“We take pride in our ability to identify and capitalize on opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve air quality, and improve city services at the same time,” said Chief Resilience Officer Russ Stark. “Because emissions from larger vehicles are some of the hardest to tackle, this is a big milestone toward realizing our climate goals.” 

Rosenbauer has started the build process on an RTX electric fire truck for Saint Paul, with delivery expected by 2025. However, the Star Tribune recently reported the $1.8 million truck is expected to join the fleet at the end of 2024. Final assembly of the city’s and state’s first electric fire truck will be completed at Rosenbauer’s facility in Wyoming, Minnesota, with delivery expected to coincide with completion of a new Fire Station 7 on the city’s East Side. 

The city of Saint Paul is submitting federal earmark funding requests to support the purchase of the state’s first electric fire engine.