'Greenest fire appliance in Ireland' Ireland's first fire engine of its type launched in Carlow

Carlow and Ireland's first sustainable fire engine was the topic of conversation on RTÉ Radio 1's programme, Morning Ireland, this morning featuring the acting Chief Fire Officer of Carlow County Council, Liam Carroll.

He was on the programme to discuss the "greenest fire appliance in Ireland", with Ireland and Carlow's first sustainable fire engine, using "state of the art software and hydro treated vegetable oil", with the mix of software and solar green fuel promising to cut the carbon footprint of the by "90% compared to diesel engines".

Read Next: New Thai Restaurant has recently opened its doors in County Carlow

Not only is it a first for Ireland and Carlow, but the engine built here in Tullow, County Carlow is one of the few engines of this type in the world.

But how did Carlow Fire Service become a leader in this type of technology in Ireland, Liam Carroll says, "To put it in to context, the government's National Climate Action Plan 2023, it mandates public sector and local authorities to reduce our carbon output and emissions output by 51% by 2030. The fire service is a part of the local authorities structure in Ireland, so we are mandated and obliged to reduce our carbon output by 51%."

He speaks how using funding provided to them they looked at a number of options before selecting the hydrotreated vegetable oil option. " We looked at battery technology and electric fire engines, the costs are prohibitive for the one thing, but we also have a rural fire brigade, we have long duration incidents, we get lots of fires on the Blackstairs Mountains that could go on for 12, 13, 14 hours and the option to plug in a fire engine wasn't there for us. It is produced locally by HPMP in Tullow, the infrastructure is already in place, using oils from food that is not fit for human consumption."

Talking more about the further innovations made to the vehicle, "All of our rescue tools are now battery powered, we have solar panels on the vehicle that is now charging all of these tools."

Looking then to price it costs to put a vehicle with this amount of technology on the road in Carlow Town, "It costs €360,000 to put on the road, it has a 20 year lifespan, it will be based in Carlow Town and will do between 350-400 calls a year, it will do 7,000 to 8,000 calls in its lifetime. I know it sounds expensive but it does represent good value for money."

Incredible innovation taking place in County Carlow with the machine operating the county and being manufactured here as well.