Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer was joined by Cal Fire officers and leaders of the California Fire Chiefs Association Monday to announce their plans to take aggressive action against Wall Street capital firms, accusing them of seizing control over the fire truck industry.
Lawson-Remer argued that these firms have driven up costs for emergency vehicles and cut production, leaving San Diego communities vulnerable to growing wildfire threats.
She revealed that local fire departments are forced to use outdated fire engines that have passed their 20-year lifespan. In San Diego County, engine costs have doubled from $650,000 to $1.3 million, with critical equipment also facing delivery delays of up to 900 days.
Supply chain delays and high costs for low-quality engines, she said, have turned this issue into a concern for public safety and a corporate battle for first responders to do their jobs.
“This is not just the San Diego County problem. Fire departments from Seattle, Houston to Atlanta are all fairly squeezed, but here in San Diego County, the consequences are especially urgent. Our small and rural departments are hard hit, still waiting two, three and even four years to get the equipment that they have already ordered and then paying inflated prices for lower quality,” Supervisor Lawson-Remer said.
“This corporate bottleneck is earning emergency room responses across the board. Departments are being forced to rely on aging fire engines that have long surpassed the recommended last chance. New vehicles that break down more frequently cost more to maintain and put firefighters and the public at risk.”
Bernard Molloy, Murrieta fire chief and president of the California Fire Chiefs Association, was among the speakers who voiced concerns about the current fire truck market, which has worsened since the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Molloy, prices have nearly doubled from what they were less than a decade ago, with the average fire engine costing more than a million dollars and the average truck company costing over $2 million. He also pointed out that delivery times for essential fire equipment continue to be delayed, from within a year to over four years.
As a result, fire departments are lacking the resources to respond promptly to fire alerts and prioritize public safety.
“Our personnel stand ready to do their jobs, but we’re having trouble arranging the apparatus in a timely fashion to meet the needs to serve our community. So we’re asking our public leaders to partner with us, support whatever you can do in order to make it easier for us to purchase apparatus for our departments to serve the public,” Molloy said. “This is not an attack on manufacturers. We want to work closely with our main apparatus manufacturers to ensure we have the best equipment available to serve the public at their time of need.”
Lawson-Remer will present a plan at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting to form policies and possible legal action against these corporations. She said holding these firms accountable aims to dismantle the monopoly on essential fire equipment and ensure fire departments have the tools needed to save lives.
“No fire department should be at the mercy of a monopolized supply chain when lives are on the line. This crisis did not happen overnight, and it will not be fixed overnight, but San Diego County is not going to sit back and wait while our first responders are left stranded,” Lawson-Remer said. “We’re standing up for firefighters, we’re fighting corporate greed and we’re doing everything we can to protect public safety.”
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