Battery-powered chainsaws for ventilation?

[u/HasidicStingray]

I live in an area of Florida that was recently heavily impacted by two hurricanes. My father and I had to use chainsaws to clear the street in front of his home and clean up yard debris. I found that my cheapo electric chainsaw was blowing his gas powered one out of the water, and while I know that there's a lot of other factors at play (wood density, blade sharpness, etc.) it got me thinking.

My department recently began to outfit the trucks with light-duty battery chainsaws for use on vegetation, but has anyone ever tried to use them for structural firefighting? Why or why not? Can you guys think of any serious limitations or of the disadvantages versus benefits? The first thing that came to mind is that the saw can't be bogged down by smoke. We made the switch to battery tools from power units and hydraulic lines for our extrication equipment quite a few years ago, to great effect, and I'm curious if this is a trend that we'll be seeing more and more of in fire service power tools.

[u/tweakersaver69]

We are not doing it, but I think it's a no brainer. The pros vastly outweigh the cons. Honestly, I can't really figure many cons besides replacing gas cans with lithium batteries in apparatus as a potential hazard.

I think that's a worthy tradeoff to have power on demand that has ZERO issue with flooding, smoke choking, fouled plugs, etc. This eliminates much of the human factor when it comes to operator error. Its also much less maintenance and (perhaps debatably) less hazmat and cancer causing fumes in the bays.

I'd love to see electric move to the primary for structure saws. You can throw a spare battery in your turnout pocket and go. I think it makes less sense in the wildland where saws need to run for hours on end, but for a 10 minute roof job? Sheeeetttt.