Inside Boulder County’s custom hazmat truck

The $1 million custom rig includes dedicated space for command and research functions

March 19, 2025 12:53 PM •

By Lt. Stewart Visser

A new hazmat truck has hit the streets in Boulder County, Colorado – one with more space and all the proverbial bells and whistles.

The details: The 2024 Freightliner 108SD has a Cummins L9 400-hp engine and a 30-foot mounted box on the chassis. Two slide-outs at the front of the rig form the command center, which includes a smooth aluminum conference table with bench seating and two large-screen TVs that can be used to display the built-in camera system’s live feed, site maps, weather data, rig-mounted radios and any other information command might need. The middle section of the rig includes a large counter, incinerator toilet, sink, small refrigerator and small freezer. The last third of the rig includes another slide-out on the driver’s side. This is set up as a research area with multiple computers, a mounted radio and swivel chairs. At the back is a U-shaped shelving setup complete with a fold-up table that can store multiple gas meters and identification equipment and their corresponding calibration gases.

Let’s explore the lifecycle of the truck, from initial plan to final inspection and delivery.

Boulder County’s hazmat need

The Boulder County Hazmat Authority is its own government agency, which allows the team to develop an operational plan, purchase and maintain all its own equipment and apparatus, and provide training programs. And before last year, a new multi-use command rig was at the top of its wish list.

The old hazmat rig, owned by the Longmont Fire Department, was 24 years old, and though still functional, it lacked the size and modern technology needed to support the entire county’s team.

A capital asset plan that was developed along with the budget required a certain amount of money to be saved each year to buy a new rig. The team knew it needed a rig that could accommodate a command function, carry a large amount of equipment and include technological advances that would keep it functional for years to come.

Boulder County’s unique setup

The Boulder County Hazmat Team (BCHMT) was formed as an authority in 2017 when the county’s 10 designated emergency response authorities (DERAs) signed an intergovernmental agreement (IGA). Each DERA provides funding though an annual assessment levied at the beginning of the year. Six of the DERAs provided hazmat techs in addition to an initial contribution of apparatus and equipment based on what each agency already had available.

The BCHMT is overseen by a five-person board of directors. Under the board is an advisory committee made up of members from seven local agencies. The advisory committee oversees the day-to-day operations of the team, including all emergency responses, training, equipment purchasing and maintenance, apparatus purchasing and maintenance, SOPs/SOGs, the annual budget and various internal programs associated with the team.

Funding for the authority is per capita based on each DERA’s population according to federal census data. The hazmat team invoices each DERA for its annual assessment in January and uses that money as the operating budget for the year. That means the hazmat team is not reliant on taxes of any sort.

Building the Boulder County Hazmat Team

The Boulder County Hazmat Team includes 100 hazmat technicians from across the county, with personnel from six fire departments.

Twice-monthly team trainings allow as many people as possible to attend, and additional trainings focus on specific topics. The team also offers its own 80-hour hazmat tech certification course (certified through the International Fire Service Accreditation Congress – IFSAC).

The team has a large array of metering equipment, identification equipment, PPE and decon setups spread out among seven hazmat rigs at six fire departments, so each agency has the ability to handle smaller hazmat events internally without the need to dispatch the entire team. When the entire team is requested for a hazmat incident, they bring all the rigs, providing a large amount of equipment and PPE with redundancy built in for backup when equipment or PPE fails.

The team developed and runs its own Tox-Medic program, with 20 of our Hazmat Techs AHLS certified. Two hazmat rigs and one ambulance have Tox-Boxes that hold medications to deal with exposures of the top 15 most toxic and/or most abundant chemicals in Boulder County. The team holds quarterly continuing education training specifically for the tox-medics and has its own protocols surrounding the tox-medic program that have been included as part of the overall Boulder County EMS protocols.

The new rig gives the hazmat team something it’s never had before – an area within the rig large enough for a command presence for multiple people while also allowing access to up-to-date photos and video from both the entry teams and the telescoping camera that sits on the back of the rig and is piped into the two large screens mounted in the command area. There’s also room for the command and research functions to take place simultaneously, which was impossible in the old command vehicle. The new rig also has plenty of storage capability.

Truck committee process and selection

Of course, all of this had to start somewhere – with a plan and a committee.

The truck committee started out by soliciting interest from the overall team membership, especially those who had experience on truck committees at their fire departments. The committee also pursued people outside the team who could have an impact, including the head mechanic from the maintenance facility that would ultimately work on the vehicle.

The eight-member truck committee traveled around the Denver metro area and met with members from other local hazmat teams, bomb squads and other agencies with large command vehicles. The committee took note of the things they liked and didn’t like about each vehicle and the lessons learned by other agencies. This process lasted several months before the committee felt like it had a blueprint of what it wanted to take to manufacturers as a request for proposal (RFP).

Selecting the specs and working through the details

We issued an RFP to four vendors: SVI, Rosenbauer, Pierce and LDV. Rosenbauer and Pierce chose not to submit a proposal, so only proposals from the two other manufacturers were considered. Both companies submitted detailed drawings and competitive bids.

Ultimately the BCHMT board of directors chose SVI based on price and proximity, which gave the committee easy access to monitor the progress of the build.

Once the vendor was chosen, the truck committee met with the design team at SVI to start the process. At this point the committee had already met several times and had an extensive list of needs and wants.

Starting with the most basic decision, the size of the rig was based on a few factors, including a desire to use a commercial chassis over a custom one because of availability. A custom chassis would have potentially added several months to build as opposed to a commercial chassis being easier to get.

Additionally, we didn’t want this rig to be solely a command vehicle, so it was important to also include a dedicated spot for two people to perform the Research functions. This area has the third slide-out, two captains’ chairs and space for multiple computers, screens, a radio and various IT connections to accommodate just about any data port. In addition to the command, research and equipment storage areas, top requests included the following:

Bathroom: An incinerator toilet was chosen because it eliminated the need for large fresh water and black water tanks, and it’s absolutely necessary for extended incidents.
Kitchen sink with extended counter space: This gives the team a limited supply of fresh water and space for a counter-mounted freezer (used mostly for ice packs for cooling vests), a coffee maker, a microwave and a small refrigerator under the counter.
Multiple cabinets to store smaller items.
A telescoping camera that could be piped into the command section of the vehicle.
Several large cabinets for storage of the decon setup, various levels of PPE, boots and benches for donning and doffing.

Working with the SVI design team proved to be a great experience. They had already generated drawings for their proposal, so the team had a good foundation to work from. The first meeting with SVI was an all-day event where every aspect of the rig was either approved, cut or modified. Generic pricing on changes helped keep the team on track. And after that first meeting with the design team, SVI put together revised drawings and pricing based on changes. Over the course of a few emails and another meeting or two, the final specs were drawn up and approved.

As the build progressed, SVI posted photos on its website so the team could keep tabs on the progress.

Finally, the truck committee made its way to SVI to spend the day going through the rig to make sure everything they asked for was in place and that everything worked. As with any new build, a few items needed to be corrected, and SVI did so quickly.