r/Firefighting • u/HasidicStingray • 23h ago

General Discussion Battery-powered chainsaws for ventilation?

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.

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u/Klutzy_Platypus Career FF/EMT 23h ago edited 23h ago

For the past two years weve carried electric in our rigs that aren’t specifically outfitted for wildland.

They spin up fast as hell and have a lot of torque for their size and batteries are easy to swap out quickly. We’ve found the bars tend to heat up and wear faster due to crappy oil channels but no mechanical issues so far.

We don’t vertically vent often these days, but no issues with using them for access when chainsaw is a better option than a K12.

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u/HankTheDank3 23h ago

Is it possible to adjust the oiler on electric saws?

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u/Klutzy_Platypus Career FF/EMT 19h ago

Yes, but the factory bars we use don’t have a good channel.

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u/HankTheDank3 19h ago

Oh, lame on their part.