As important as it is to assess and address potential mistakes, finding a scapegoat won’t stop the next fire. Instead, all parties need to ask how they can do better to improve processes and outcomes in future crises. Local government officials, first responders and manufacturers must explore modern solutions that put public safety at the forefront.
That includes confronting the challenges of long wait times and high prices for firefighting equipment. When a ladder truck can cost over $2 million, attention has naturally turned toward the manufacturers, but as is often the case the facts are more complicated. We have long been dealing with a dysfunctional system of purchasing and receiving firefighting equipment — a system that was bound to fail.
As with so many industries today, these issues came to a head beginning in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic left ships full of supplies stuck outside ports while firefighting equipment manufacturers lost as many as a third of their employees. As manufacturers struggled to make do with fewer materials and fewer workers, billions of dollars in stimulus checks boosted fire departments’ purchasing power, resulting in increased order volume that put an even greater strain on the industry. Manufacturers had little choice but to increase wait times and costs to combat the difficulty of building trucks in a post-COVID world.
As a result, acquiring a fire truck is now a time-consuming and costly endeavor that can leave fire stations poorly equipped while they wait years for a new engine. It’s not a surprise that, without a fully operable fleet of fire trucks, many fire departments struggle to provide their usual level of service and protection to their communities.
Part of this timeline has to do with the way trucks are built. Custom fire trucks continue to dominate the fire service. Despite the increased cost and wait time, many fire chiefs continue to design bespoke vehicles exactly suited to their every preference, and manufacturers continue to meet fire chiefs’ requests. The result is an inefficient system that drags out production time and negatively impacts the fire service, leaving communities exposed to greater risk.
There is room for improvement. Leading manufacturers are responding by offering more standardized fire truck options equipped with advanced technology that attracts a younger generation of firefighters and can be built in less than a year. Rather than continuing to rely on a complex, time-consuming model, cities and manufacturers need to embrace a standardized truck model that can be built and repaired quickly and is equipped with the most up-to-date technology.
The value of standardization is hardly an untested theory. It’s why a modern Toyota is easier to fix than an antique Porsche. Southwest Airlines has been flying almost entirely Boeing 737s since its inception in 1967, choosing efficiency over the complexity of diverse offerings. Standardization streamlines the maintenance process, so products spend more time in use and less time in maintenance purgatory.
That principle applies to fire trucks and other emergency service vehicles. Standard truck models outfitted with new technologies mean more operational fire trucks and simpler, cheaper maintenance. Fire chiefs and emergency responders have enough to worry about without adding complex vehicle operation and maintenance to their plate.
The trucks we choose to buy today will protect our communities for a generation. Creating simpler, more efficient processes now will keep more fire trucks available to answer calls.
As a former mayor, I can attest that public service, as rewarding as it is, can be thankless at times. Often the biggest successes are unseen: the disasters averted, the budgets that weren’t cut — or the fire truck that isn’t out of service awaiting repairs.
Fire chiefs, mayors and manufacturers are unified in the mission of preserving and protecting the public good. That sometimes means making difficult choices or daring to change the status quo.
Rick Kriseman was the mayor of St. Petersburg, Fla., from 2014 to 2022. He is now executive vice president and a principal of Shumaker Advisors’ U.S. cities practice.
Governing’s opinion columns reflect the views of their authors and not necessarily those of Governing’s editors or management.
