Round Rock City Council unanimously approved the purchase of new fire and emergency management vehicles on Thursday, Nov. 20.
Council members approved a total of five public safety vehicles, including a Police mobile command bus and four Fire vehicles — a brush truck, an aerial ladder truck, a pumper truck and an air truck used to refill air bottles at fire scenes.
The new mobile command unit will serve as a central operations hub during natural disasters and large events, enable real-time data, and provide on-site command capability improving operational efficiency.
The new unit will cost $1.55 million and replaces an aging Farber command bus, purchased in 2012, that had reached the end of its operational life cycle. According to staff, the new command bus will allow the department to have access to new technological infrastructure required for modern incident management.
Four new fire vehicles were requested by the Round Rock Fire Department and approved by Council:
The mini-pumper, part of the voter-approved 2023 G.O. bond package and tied to the addition of a new fire station, is a new addition to the fleet. It will be placed into service as a squad.
The air truck will replace the Department’s current SCBA air compressor trailer/fill station. Instead of maintaining a separate trailer and dedicated pull vehicle, this purchase consolidates both into one truck capable of filling air bottles and transporting spares to incident scenes. It replaces a 2009 air trailer and a 2008 truck.
The brush truck is part of the Department’s standard vehicle replacement program and will replace a brush truck purchased in 2011.
The aerial truck is also part of the standard replacement program, replacing a 2009 ladder truck. This purchase will fully standardize the Department’s ladder fleet, ensuring all front-line trucks have a minimum 100-foot ladder.
With the exception of the mini-pumper, all purchases are part of the Fire Department’s standard vehicle replacement program.
The combined cost of the four Fire Department vehicles is $2.95 million.
