It was troubling what happened as a crew set up to douse a small brush fire in the local desert last month. Firefighter Tim Ross said that as he supplied water to his fellow crew members, he accidentally lost 20% of it. It just spilled into the ground. The problem was “old equipment, an outdated e ngine, and years of hard water, junk and crunk in the pump,” Ross, who is with Cal Fire, said at a news conference last week, speaking in his role as an officer with his firefighter union. San Diego County’s fire department contracts with Cal Fire to staff its fire stations, but the county supplies and owns the apparatus. Fire officials in the region and beyond say they are seeing sharply rising costs and years-long waits for new fire engines and other vehicle apparatus. County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer points the finger at the truck makers. On Wednesday, at Lawson-Remer’s prompting, the county Board of Supervisors agreed to look at pursuing potential legal or advocacy actions targeting the few corporations that control the lion’s share of the fire truck manufacturing industry. “What’s happened is that a handful of corporations, basically led by a few private equity firms, have gobbled up all of the companies and have consolidated the market,” Lawson-Remer, the acting chair of the board, said while introducing the item to the board. “So now we have just a few companies dominating the supply chain market for firefighting equipment, and this means they essentially have a monopoly, which allows them to drive up costs and drag out timelines because there’s not fair market competition.” The idea behind the county action, she said, would be to “break through these corporate bottlenecks.” The supervisor said she is “really focused on anti-trust litigation and anti-trust actions.” Her push for the county to consider legal and policy action follows a New York Times story in February reporting that three companies control much of the fire truck manufacturing market, that prices have soared and that the backlog of orders to deliver new trucks now stretches years. The issues affect departments across the region. Supporters of the Board of Supervisors’ effort include Chief Dave McQuead, head of Rancho Santa Fe Fire Protection District and president of the San Diego County Fire Chiefs Association, which represents a few dozen local agencies. “Fire agencies, both here locally and nationally, have been held under hostage over the years by the actions of the fire apparatus manufacturers and under private equity ownership,” he said at a news conference last week. The largest supplier of equipment to San Diego County Fire Protection District is the REV Group, which the New York Times said is one of the big three companies in the fire truck manufacturing market. A county official said that since the county’s fire department was created in 2008, it has bought more than 90 pieces of fire apparatus from an REV-owned company, spending an estimated $42 million, not including four pieces on order. One of the biggest reasons for sticking with the same manufacturer is the desire for standardization of equipment for training and maintenance – including having parts on hand. Also a big factor: multi-year contracts struck after open-market bidding. “The REV group of companies has been successful in many of these awards,” county fire department spokesperson Chuck Westerheide said. A REV Group spokesperson did not immediately respond Friday. Mike Virnig, president of REV’s division that manufactures fire trucks, told the Times that the company has made a more standardized model that could be made in less than a year, and overall wait times could drop if more departments opt to buy it. The New York Times reported that the pandemic caused global supply chain issues at a time when more jurisdictions were buying trucks. Virnig told the paper he believed the industry could return to the normal 12- to 18-month manufacturing timelines within a few years. Lawson-Remer said local fire departments are facing delays longer than about two and a half years. And the costs, she said, have doubled. In the fiscal year that started in 2016, a Type-1 fire engine — the sort normally seen in urban and suburban settings — cost the county about $526,000, Westerheide said. “That price this year is $1.25 million. That’s not a little raise or bump in inflation. That’s a lot of money,” Westerheide said. The lifecycle of a fire engine for the county fire department is roughly 15 years, with the first 12 years on front-line service and the balance on reserve service. New apparatus is routinely ordered to keep the fleet within that lifespan. The county has 26 structural fire engines. It also has one wildland engine for use in rugged terrain and another 11 “patrol” engines, which fire officials said are “highly mobile, off-road capable, and ideal for initial attack on wildfires.” The county ordered a new fire engine during the second half of 2022. It’s due to arrive in September – a roughly three-year turnaround. A pair ordered during fiscal 2025 is expected to arrive in January. A fire truck the county ordered during fiscal 2023 is slated for delivery in 2027. Fire trucks are different from the more familiar standard fire engine. They are specialized vehicles, big rigs with an extendable 50- to 100-foot ladder on top. McQuead, who heads the regional fire chiefs association, told the Union-Tribune that pre-COVID-19, it would typically take 12 to 18 months to receive a new engine — and sometimes the makers would pay the departments if they were late on the turn-around. No more. “Today, it’s not even close. The whole framework has flipped around,” he said. McQuead said that after one local department ordered a brush fire rig, it was told to pay another $30,000 to $40,000 surcharge for labor and materials. If the department refused, another agency would jump ahead in line and take the truck, he said. He did not identify the department or the manufacturer. He said agencies also have limited options when it comes to replacement parts. “It’s not like going to Pep Boys and getting a headlight. These parts are specific,” he said. Before agreeing to have the county consider legal or advocacy action, Supervisor Joel Anderson cited a structural deficit in the county budget and wanted to be sure local taxpayers were not footing the legal bill for chasing the fire apparatus issue. He was told legal costs would be on contingency and covered in successful litigation. Anderson successfully suggested the county’s action include trying to push state or federal lawmakers to join the fight, particularly public safety committees in both houses of the California Legislature, saying “they would have the gravitas, the power of the (Attorney General) to pursue it.” The board’s resolution directs county attorneys to “explore legal and advocacy options related to fire apparatus, antitrust and monopolistic practices.” The lawyers are slated to return to the board every 90 days for closed session talks with updates and options. San Diego County has gone after other industries in recent years, including opioid manufacturers and the maker of a milling machine the county argues can be used to make unregistered firearms known as ghost guns. Earlier this year, the board sued big tech companies for what it says are detrimental effects of social media on youth. ...read more read less