Area firefighters deal with soaring truck prices
Getting a new rig can take years
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Local fire departments are paying big bucks – sometimes as much as $1 million – for new trucks and waiting longer and longer to get them.
The most recent example can be found in Fort Dodge, where the Fire Department recently placed in service a bucket truck called a tower ladder that can lift firefighters 100 feet above the ground to make rescues and extinguish flames.
That truck was ordered three and a half years ago and was delivered this spring.
It cost $1.6 million. Fire Chief Matt Price said the city saved money by locking in the price nearly four years ago.
Last year, the Fort Dodge City Council approved the purchase of a new pumper truck to replace one built in 2001. Price said he was told it will take 42 months to get the completed rig, which will cost $1 million.
He said a very similar truck purchased by another Iowa community a few years ago cost about $600,000.
"It's basically doubled in less than 10 years," Price said of the fire truck price.
He added that the truck that is on order will be smaller than the current trucks, but will still cost much more.
The tower ladder and the new pumper were both ordered from Pierce Manufacturing, in Appleton, Wisconsin. Pierce is part of Oshkosh Corp., one of the fire truck companies some communities are suing because of the high prices and long delivery times. Fort Dodge is not one of the communities involved in the lawsuits.
There appears to be no clear reason why the prices have shot up and the delivery times have lagged.
"The manufacturers claim it's labor issues – they can't get people," Price said. "They claim it's the cost of materials. But doubling the pricing still seems kind of strange."
REV Group, Oshkosh Corp. and Rosebauer are the defendants in the lawsuits. Lehigh Fire Chief Aaron Morris said the three are "basically monopolizing the fire system."
"I know prices have went through the roof," he said.
He said the situation has impacted the supply of parts for fire trucks also.
Lehigh isn't in the market for a new truck right now. But the department's pumper was delivered in 2009, and with a 20-year service life for a fire truck, it will have to be replaced in a few years. Morris said to pay for a new one, the department will have to apply for a grant and do a lot of fundraising.
The Otho Fire Department is working to replace a 2005 model pumper. Fire Chief Marty Smith said it cost about $200.000 when it was delivered. The cost estimate for the new rig is $520,000, more than twice the price of the older one.
"I'd guess you'd have inflation, but still the prices are out of control," he said.
"I like to say that if you use the words fire department it doubles or triples the price of anything," he added.
The Otho Fire Department has applied for an Assistance to Firefighters Grant from the federal Emergency Management Agency to help pay for the new pumper. If awarded, the grant would pay 95 percent of the cost of the new truck. Smith said he expects to learn late this year if the grant will be awarded.
Dayton Fire Chief Luke Hainzinger said his department hasn't "tried for any big trucks because of the price."
Instead, over the last decade or so his department has purchased three used trucks from the Adel Fire Department.
"Our trucks are aging, but we take very good care of them," he said.
His department is in the process of converting a Ford F350 truck that was once its rescue unit into a grass fire unit at a cost of about $30,000.