PurposeThe purpose of the paper is to estimate the effect of rapid intervention vehicles (RIVs)’ impact on fire department (FDs)' response time.Design/methodology/approachThe study employed multivariate regression analysis of changes in response times before and after introducing RIVs into the FD task force, controlling for expected travel time. Response time analysis based on the database of all emergency fire responses in Norway from 2016 to 2021 was carried out.FindingsIntroducing RIVs into the FDs' task force reduced response times by 53 s on average for every call where an RIV is being deployed, given an average driving length of an emergency call of 6.4 kilometers. The response time is reduced to approximately 37 s independently of driving length, and this effect increases with 2.5 s per km.Originality/valuePrecise estimation of the expected reduced response time was calculated by introducing the first RIV into the FD's task force based on advanced statistical analysis on complete emergency register data. The analysis shows that RIVs have a positive impact on response time in both urban and rural areas, while particularly strong for urban areas.