The new engine is expected to have an extended lifespan, cut fuel costs and lower injury risks
by Cecilia Wallace — Environmental reporter

The City of Roseville is unveiling its new electric fire engine on October 8. It is the second city to do so in Minnesota after St. Paul.

The decision to purchase the electric engine followed nearly two years of discussions between city officials and the fire department, who weighed the long-term costs and benefits of electric versus diesel models.

Assistant Fire Chief Neil Sjostrom said the city’s capital improvement plan and rising diesel fuel prices were key factors in the move.

“We met with our city manager, our city council. It’s been about two years ago now when we first kind of met with them, or really started to talk about, about probably summer of 2023, where we really had to make a decision,” Sjostrom said. 

The department expects the new engine to lower operational costs and improve firefighter safety, thanks to features like a quieter cab and a lower step height that reduces the risk of injury.

“Diesel engines have worked, but what we’re running into is we had to replace that every five years, and so the hard part that we are running into is new diesel engines were somewhere in between the 1 million to $1.4 million in cost,” Fire Chief David Brosnahan said. “…these electric engines, we believe, could be anywhere from a five to 10-year time frame before [they need] to necessarily be replaced, but go into more of a reserve status [in the meantime].”

While Brosnahan and Sjostrom are excited about the new engine, they also recognize that this will come with comprehensive training for their firefighters.

“We’re probably spending at least four weeks before it even goes into service, just doing training on it,” Brosnahan said.

The training will include everything from driving on a closed course to learning about the pump panel and operator’s panel, Sjostrom said, because it’s “sort of all different in every aspect.’

“It’s just a matter of doing it enough times to sort of build those new habits that we’ve been building over the course of time,” Sjostrom said.

Although this is a big transition for the Roseville Fire Department, Brosnahan and Sjostrom are optimistic that the investment will pay off in the long run.

“The firefighters really feel genuinely excited about what’s coming,” Brosnahan said. “I think they’re really looking forward to the opportunities, both from a known perspective, the benefits, but then also, you know, some of the operational benefits that we just don’t know yet.”

Cecilia Wallace can be reached at celiadw016@gmail.com.