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Dallas-Fire Rescue demonstrates the PANTHER 6×6 electric vehicle at Dallas Love Field airport, Wednesday, April 29, 2026.<\/p>\n
Angela Piazza\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
Ben Thornton was brought on about four years ago as chief of the Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting crew at Dallas Love Field. As long as he\u2019s been there, they\u2019ve used diesel emergency response vehicles\u00a0\u2014 but that may soon change.<\/p>\n
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The ARFF crew and Dallas Fire-Rescue on Wednesday at Love Field unveiled a PANTHER 6×6, a 91,000-pound all-electric vehicle designed to fight airport fires.<\/p>\n
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The PANTHER 6×6, which the crew hopes to add to its main fleet after testing, could be the first all-electric airport firefighting vehicle at Love Field, according to a city of Dallas news release. The vehicle is manufactured by Austrian-based\u00a0Rosenbauer International.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The ARFF crew at Love Field, which partners with DFR, responds to hundreds of medical and fire emergencies per year that impact Love Field airport staff and travelers, according to the release.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Thornton said the idea to add an electric PANTHER 6×6 to his crew\u2019s fleet sprung from the Rosenbauer\u2019s preexisting electric fire engine concept and his desire to provide his teams with the best emergency response equipment possible.<\/p>\n
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ARFF chief Ben\u00a0Thornton calls VIPs into the cab of the PANTHER 6×6 electric vehicle at Dallas Love Field airport, Wednesday, April 29, 2026.<\/p>\n
Angela Piazza\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
DFR held a news conference Wednesday morning to reveal the new electric PANTHER and demonstrate the electric and older diesel vehicles side by side. \u00a0<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Thornton, who worked with\u00a0DFR for over 26 years, has driven both vehicles and said the differences are like night and day. The electric PANTHER is quieter, faster and overall more efficient for the crews’ limited emergency response window of about 90 seconds. \u00a0<\/p>\n The game changer is the vehicles’ almost noiseless driving experience, which allows crews to communicate with each other during emergency calls without the headsets a diesel requires, Thornton said.\u00a0<\/p>\n The rumbly sound of the diesel vehicle was a sharp contrast to the hum of the electric PANTHER as they both pulled up on the tarmac at the airport\u2019s Station 21. The water pump, which creates an abrasive noise in the diesel\u2019s cab, could barely be heard in the electric vehicle. The only discernable noise from the electric PANTHER was its tires spinning on pavement.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Dallas-Fire Rescue demonstrates the PANTHER 6×6 electric vehicle at Dallas Love Field airport, Wednesday, April 29, 2026.<\/p>\n Angela Piazza\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n Steve John, a Rosenbauer market development director, said the vehicle runs four FAA cycles before it needs to recharge. An FAA cycle entails driving the vehicle from the fire station to the farthest point on the runway and emptying its water tank before returning to the station.\u00a0<\/p>\n The vehicle has been in the making for about 10 years, John and Thornton said. It will go through a six-month trial and testing period at Love Field before it’s put into service, with a long-term goal of integrating one to two more vehicles into the frontline fleet, Thornton said. \u00a0<\/p>\n John said the company already has several electric PANTHER 6×6 orders from other airports, including some in New Zealand and Singapore.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Here are a few more of its prominent features:<\/p>\n By signing up, you agree to our Terms Of Use<\/a> and acknowledge that your information will be used as described in our Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n A \u201cboost mode\u201d button allowing\u00a0acceleration from 0 to 50 mph in under 15 seconds Dallas-Fire Rescue chief Justin Ball climbs out of the PANTHER 6×6 electric vehicle after a demonstration ride in Dallas Love Field airport, Wednesday, April 29, 2026.<\/p>\n Angela Piazza\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n DFR Chief Justin Ball said moving forward with technological innovation is a critical part of the department\u2019s mission to ensure the safety of \u00a0Dallas’ citizens, travelers and emergency response crews while also prioritizing rapid response and environmental impact.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cThis vehicle represents the department\u2019s commitment to being a leader in emergency response,\u201d Ball said. \u201cWe\u2019re proving that efficiency and innovation go hand-in-hand with safety.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dallas-Fire Rescue demonstrates the PANTHER 6×6 electric vehicle at Dallas Love Field airport, Wednesday, April 29, 2026. Angela…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[101146,1613,102,104,103,57170,87259,15387,94315],"class_list":["post-272259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-9-11-first-responders","tag-airport","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-electric-vehicle","tag-firefighting","tag-love-field","tag-tp-dallas-fire-rescue"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
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\nIncreased water stream reach by 40%, extending from 190 feet to 250 feet
\nTwo charging circuits and an emergency backup\u00a0unit that turns on when the battery drops to 20%\u00a0
\nAbility to pump and stream water regardless of how fast the vehicle is traveling
\nTurning radius of about 100 feet
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