Jamestown-area first responders learn electric vehicle rescue tactics in training

When an electric or hybrid vehicle rolls into a crash scene around Jamestown, responders now have to think beyond airbags and fuel leaks. They must identify battery placement, manage high-voltage systems and control hazards that can change how quickly a patient is removed and how safely the scene is secured.

Jamestown-area first responders spent April 28 and 29 in two four-hour classes on electric vehicle rescue tactics led by Vehicle Response Training of Minnesota. The instruction covered how to tell battery-electric, hybrid-electric, plug-in hybrid-electric and fuel cell electric vehicles apart, along with EV 101, primary and secondary hazards, fire and extrication challenges, scene management, environmental and hazmat concerns, EV transport and chain-of-custody protocols.

The training was built for more than badge recognition. Vehicle Response Training says its curriculum includes classroom instruction and hands-on work with a mobile electric-vehicle training truck, giving crews practice on the kinds of scenes they may face on Interstate 94, Highway 281 or the county roads that feed into Jamestown. In Stutsman County, where responders cover city streets, rural farm calls and long highway stretches, the difference between a gas vehicle rescue and an EV response can affect how crews approach the car, isolate the power source and protect patients and bystanders.

That urgency fits the territory. Stutsman County is the second-largest county in North Dakota by total area, with about 2,221.9 square miles of land, and Jamestown sits at the intersection of Interstate 94 and Highway 281. The county’s population was estimated at 21,546 in July 2024 and 21,414 in July 2025, numbers that still leave a relatively small emergency workforce responsible for a broad patch of road and farmland.

Vehicle Response Training’s CEO, Jesse Ruhmann, is identified by the company as a certified EV technician with more than 20 years of structural collision-repair and damage-assessment experience and more than 18 years as a Twin Cities firefighter. That mix of repair knowledge and fireground experience matches the kind of split-second judgment local crews need when a wreck involves batteries, heat or a vehicle that cannot be treated like a conventional sedan or pickup.

The training comes as North Dakota’s EV infrastructure planning continues to move forward along key travel corridors, even after the state’s EV infrastructure program was paused in February 2025 while federal guidance was reviewed. For Jamestown responders, the message was practical: the vehicles on Stutsman County roads are changing, and the rescue playbook has to change with them.