Victoria's first electric fire truck has arrived.
The Victoria Fire Department unveiled its Rosenbauer RTX on Friday. The truck is fully electric, but has a diesel back-up generator to help with extended firefighting response.
"We're the 3rd city in all of Canada to be able to offer this revolutionary new technology. We're just so excited around here, you know as one of the oldest fire departments in Canada this really represents and new age of firefighting for Victoria," says Chief Dan Atkinson.
"We just couldn't be happier."
It's the same truck that Vancouver has been using, but they've had issues with a leaky water tank that sidelined the vehicle shortly after it was put into use. Chief Atkinson says the Austrian manufacturer has already dealt with the problem and Victoria's truck shouldn't suffer the same issue.
"It's just strictly a water tank issue. Fortunately for us they identified that they needed slower valves to fill the tanks here in North America because we have higher pressure water systems. They applied that fix to our vehicle before we even received it so we don't have any issues at all.
The new truck is expected to be in service this summer once training is complete. Chief Atkinson says they already have another electric fire truck on order.