Three Napa city firefighters are looking to put out fires and reduce greenhouse gases at the same time.

Firefighters Julian Kowalski, Jeramy Nelson and Capt. Conrad Perez already have invested in diesel-burning Mercedes Benzes and converted the engines to burn biodiesel. Now, they want the city to follow suit.

They plan to ask the Napa City Council to convert the city's five diesel-burning fire engines and one truck to biodiesel.

Replacing diesel with biodiesel eliminates harmful emissions that pollute the atmosphere. Nelson said the switch also would make the workplace healthier for fire crews.

"We are around the engines' exhaust fumes all the time. Burning biodiesel would be less harmful for firefighters," Nelson said.

Napa Fire Chief Tim Borman said he supports the effort, but needs to examine financial and other effects.

"We are in the process of exploring biodiesel as an alternative for regular diesel," Borman said. "Battalion Chief John Callanan is researching other fire departments that use alternative fuels to see how it is working for them. There are down sides we also have to look at, such as the costs involved to convert the fleet. We want to do what's best for the environment, but we also have to have equipment that is dependable and serves the community."

Nelson said 20 percent of the fuel used by the San Francisco City Fire Department diesel trucks and engines is biodiesel.

"And their goal is to be 100 percent biodiesel by the end of the year," he said.

Chris Burgeson, fleet manager for the city of Napa, believes biodiesel is a transitional, not an end solution for eliminating greenhouse gases. Biodiesel, he said, "is just one step in the solution. There are a lot of things to discuss and resolve."

One hurdle is determining if "the manufacturer (of the vehicles) honors its warranty if the engine has been converted to biodiesel or any other alternative fuel, which is something they haven't tested or can back up," Burgeson said.

He noted that a fleet manager working for Alameda County is experimenting with raw cooking oil, while more sophisticated biodiesel is increasingly on the market and other alternatives are developing quickly.

"Hybrid technology is a really hot topic now," he said.

Bio-Benz

Perez, Kowalski and Nelson all purchased late 1980s model Mercedes-Benzes, which they have converted to biodiesel.

"The German-made diesel engine is very suitable for converting to biodiesel," Perez said.

Currently the men burn 20 percent biodiesel in their cars, and 80 percent traditional diesel fuel.

"It smells like a Chinese kitchen when we all start our engines at once," Perez quipped.

Biodiesel can be made even by amateurs. "However, it produces waste products that need to be discarded through the proper channels, which the average person making it out of cooking oil in their garage doesn't have," Nelson said.

Motorists can't just pull into any corner service station and say, "fill it up with biodiesel." The Chevron station at Solano Avenue and Redwood Road carries fuel that is 20 percent biodiesel and 80 percent diesel.

The three firefighters purchase the biodiesel from a petroleum factory in Martinez for about $3.20 a gallon.

"It would be nice to have it more available in Napa," Kowalski said. "It can be time-consuming have to fill up the tank in Martinez."

Depending on the condition of the vehicle, the biodiesel Mercedes gets about 22 miles per gallon, Nelson said. "But the real incentive is that we are reducing harmful emissions into the environment and the dependency on crude oil."

Any diesel engine can be converted to run on biodiesel with a minimal amount of work.

Nothing has to be done to the engine itself, it is just a matter of converting the fuel hoses, Nelson said.

Biodiesel fuel may become more readily available.

"There is a lot of fallow ground that could be used to grow switch grass, which is an excellent source to make biodiesel," said Kowalski. "Once it is harvested and replanted, it grows very rapidly."

The three firefighters say they haven't set out to move mountains.

"We just want to create an awareness so others will jump in to do something to reduce greenhouse gases and save our environment," Kowalski said.

"This crew is saying, 'we can make a difference.' We are hoping others will take notice to what we are doing and follow our example," Perez said. "It's our environment -- the only one we have -- and it is up to us to do what we can to preserve it."