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Of all the things to try electrify, I wouldn't even have considered anything related to fires here. I don't know anything, so maybe this could be great. There i

Of all the things to try electrify, I wouldn't even have considered anything related to fires here. I don't know anything, so maybe this could be great. There is no planet b, after all. Will these be as bottom heavy as cars? If so, maybe replacing fleets with these will mean our governments don't have to worry about installing the roll protection that would have saved a bunch of fireys from being crushed to death the last catastrophic bushfires we had! Sarcasm about how we treat our fireys (and ambos!) like garbage aside (it wasn't these kinds of vehicles rolling on people, for the record) I won't own an EV while I live in regional Australia because (I can't afford one,) the reliability of ICEs and ease of quickly refuelling and transporting extra fuel with me (...a fire risk) in an ICE can be the difference between getting out alive and not. Also none of this "won't move, need updates!" rubbish. I'd hope that wouldn't be a problem for vehicles like this, but who knows? Manufacturers also don't seem to offer a car that can reliably get me to the nearest major city and back without having to be recharged when the battery is brand new. Minutes matter in fires. I suppose I'm just skeptical of full EVs for this in the first place, a bit ill-informed, and extremely distrustful of the powers that be when it comes to protecting our fireys and providing them with what they need, and of EV manufacturers. I'm curious, though. It's not like the problems I whinged about are not obvious ones. I'd like to know how those issues can be overcome. Have a fire plan, people! Evacuate early!

bigfatkitten 2y ago
This is a bulk water tanker. Its job is to shuttle water from a reticulated urban supply to a staging area somewhere else. It's not the sort of vehicle that ends up on an actual fireground. That said, don't expect to see electric bushfire trucks anytime soon. The first reason is that 30 year old trucks often go to auction with less than 40,000km on the odometer. They aren't utilised enough for electrification to make any sense from an environmental or cost perspective. The second is that no EV truck manufacturer builds vehicles with batteries designed to withstand direct flame attack. Commercial off the shelf trucks are modified with spray bars, insulation covering electrical cabling, fuel and air lines etc to greatly improve their survivability if impacted by fire, but that isn't an option for any EV truck currently in existence. The third of course is the logistical nightmare of having to recharge vehicles. It's easy to quickly refuel 30 diesel trucks from a fuel tanker (or even from drums), but much harder to charge 30 BEV trucks without mains power in the middle of nowhere.

bigfatkitten 2y ago

This is a bulk water tanker. Its job is to shuttle water from a reticulated urban supply to a staging area somewhere else. It's not the sort of vehicle that ends up on an actual fireground. That said, don't expect to see electric bushfire trucks anytime soon. The first reason is that 30 year old trucks often go to auction with less than 40,000km on the odometer. They aren't utilised enough for electrification to make any sense from an environmental or cost perspective. The second is that no EV truck manufacturer builds vehicles with batteries designed to withstand direct flame attack. Commercial off the shelf trucks are modified with spray bars, insulation covering electrical cabling, fuel and air lines etc to greatly improve their survivability if impacted by fire, but that isn't an option for any EV truck currently in existence. The third of course is the logistical nightmare of having to recharge vehicles. It's easy to quickly refuel 30 diesel trucks from a fuel tanker (or even from drums), but much harder to charge 30 BEV trucks without mains power in the middle of nowhere.