MANSFIELD — Dan Crow acknowledged the Mansfield Fire Department is feeling the heat of national rising fire apparatus costs.
A discussion with City Council on Tuesday evening was about a single Pierce Impel Fire Engine.
But the $1,156,948 price tag caught of eye of local lawmakers, several of whom had questions during a 14-minute discussion with the chief.
Crow said the same engine four years ago cost $740,000 — a 56-percent increase since 2022.
But Mansfield is far from alone in fire truck sticker shock. In fact, the rising costs of fire apparatus around the country has gotten the attention of lawmakers in Washington, D.C.
The average price of an engine has surged from $300,000 – $500,000 in the mid-2010s to more than $1 million today, with ladder trucks now costing as much as $2 million.
Delivery now takes up to four-and-a-half years, forcing firefighters to rely on outdated and unsafe equipment, according to IAFF General President Edward Kelly, who testified in September before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Disaster Management.
Kelly warned Congress that consolidation among fire apparatus manufacturers is driving up costs, delaying deliveries for years and putting the public and fire fighters at risk.
“Steadily and purposefully, apparatus manufacturers have rigged the game. Taking a well-used page out of the corporate big money playbook, a small group of manufacturers have caused prices of fire engines and ladder trucks to balloon in recent years,” Kelly testified.
“This market manipulation has created a clear and present danger,” he said.
Crow said the MFD has always purchased such fire engines in pairs, largely using department capital funds derived from EMS runs. He said the new engine would replace one purchased in 2008.
“We’re on a schedule right now where we want our fire engines to be a frontline vehicle for 10 years and then to be 10 years in reserve,” Crow said. “By the time we do take delivery of this (in an estimated two-and-a-half years), it’ll put us on schedule to replace one of those.”
The chief said for more than 20 years the MFD has purchased fire engines in pairs.
“But we are simply not able to do that at this time, because of the outrageous, frankly, cost of fire engines and how rapidly those costs have gone up over the past few years,” he said. “It’s not a sustainable price.”
He said rising EMS revenues at current formulas are not keeping up with increased costs of apparatus.
“That’s really going to make us look at our service delivery. It makes us step back and look at how we’re doing business and and what the plan is going forward. The (capital) fund is in good shape to handle this purchase and to stay strong, but also kind of bear with us as we do look at ways to improve our service,” Crow said.
“When I first got sworn as chief (in December 2023), one of my duties that I see is to take the resources that you appropriate … that the citizens give to this government … and use them as efficiently as possible and to take care of them as best we can.
“So we certainly want to make sure that when we’re making big purchases like this that we’re doing our homework and we’re going to try to get the best deal we can for this system,” the fire chief said.
(Below is the livestream feed from Tuesday night’s Mansfield City Council meeting. The discussion on a new fire engine with MFD Chief Dan Crow begins at the 37-minute mark.)
2nd Ward Councilwoman Cheryl Meier, chair of council’s safety committee, asked about the delivery time for the new engine. Crow said it would arrive in about 890 days.
“A lot of the other manufacturers are still looking at between 3.5 to 4 years. With Pierce and the company we’re going with, they’ve just added a new plant, so they have reduce some of their lead times,” he said.
Only buying one engine could cause the department to rethink its schedule, perhaps extending the front-line service of a vehicle beyond 10 years.
At-large Councilman David Falquette asked if that would impact insurance rates.
“I think that 10-year lifespan has a lot to do with keeping insurance rates. How hard can you push against that 10 years and not raise everybody’s rate 20 percent or whatever the magic number would be?” he asked.
Crow said it would be difficult to go beyond 10 years, given the number of hours the engines are used. An engine is sent out every time a rescue squad is dispatched.
“The trucks are out all day long. Our volume continues to go up, even though most of that volume is EMS … our fire engines play a crucial role in supporting that service. As long as we continue to operate under that model, we’re going to demand our fire engines be out on the road a lot.
“If you want come look at what our 2008 trucks look like … they’ve lived a life and they’re showing it. So it does stress me to think that we’re going to try to kind of push that out,” the chief said.
Crow said the MFD has two full-time mechanics that do a good job keeping the fire apparatus running.
Falquette said he had looked into the price of raw materials used in the trucks.
“Steel and copper and aluminum and all of the raw material prices took a hockey stick jump to the sky in the past year,” he said. “It’s just really unbelievable. It’s just astronomical,” he said.
“I guess we will have to get that second unit on order sooner, rather than later,” Falquette said.
Council is scheduled to vote on the purchase at its Feb. 17 meeting.
The purchase would be made through a 10-year term loan through Mechanics Bank with 6 percent interest.