LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Fire departments in some communities don't have enough trucks. And that can delay how long it takes for them to respond to 911 calls. Alisa Roth reports on why it's getting harder for fire departments to get the trucks they need.
(SOUNDBITE OF TRUCK HONKING)
ALISA ROTH, BYLINE: There are fire trucks everywhere on the floor of the Rosenbauer manufacturing plant in Wyoming, Minnesota. Red ones, black ones, high visibility yellow ones. There are enormous aerials with long ladders on top, and the squatter trucks you might see at an airport. Two-thirds of fire trucks in the U.S. are made by three manufacturers, Rosenbauer and two others. Allison Niendiek is Rosenbauer's director of marketing and sales.
ALLISON NIENDIEK: So what we're looking at here is the core of our cab, right? It is just our extruded aluminum frame, and it is actually getting ready to go into the paint booth.
ROTH: Workers are polishing the metal, so the paint sticks better. These fire trucks cost a lot. Mike Kennedy is the fire chief in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which needs to replace one of its ladder trucks.
MIKE KENNEDY: That rig is going to cost 2.4 million.
ROTH: Kennedy says the old truck it's replacing only cost $1 million in 2013, so the price has more than doubled in 12 years. And that money needs to come from somewhere.
KENNEDY: Local government budgets are finite. And they're only going to devote so much for the fire department when we're competing against public works and parks and everyone else.
ROTH: It's also going to take a long time to get the new fire truck.
KENNEDY: It's a four-year lead time.
ROTH: He has two spare trucks, but they're both 15 years old, which is downright geriatric in fire engine years. Kennedy says his department aims to respond to a call in six minutes or less. Without enough trucks, they'd have to send one from another part of the city, which could make response times longer. That's bad when there's a fire or heart attack. Part of the problem is the nature of the industry. Most fire trucks are made to order, not mass produced like other vehicles. For example, in New York City, equipment has to be able to reach tall buildings. In rural Minnesota, on the other hand, there may not be fire hydrants, so firefighters need to pump water out of a lake instead.
(SOUNDBITE OF METAL CLANKING)
ROTH: Back at the headquarters of the Rosenbauer group, workers are building those trucks, customizing everything from how much water they carry to the precise shade of red or yellow or black they get painted. That customization also means manufacturers have a need for special parts. The industry has been struggling with supply chain issues since COVID.
KYLE WENDLAND: We are not an engine manufacturer, right? So we source an engine from suppliers.
ROTH: Kyle Wendland is supply chain director for Rosenbauer.
WENDLAND: There are different engines, depending on the truck and depending on the requirements of the truck. So we have to have these engines produced and built and delivered to us. Engines are not small, right? They take some time to produce, take some time to build and deliver to us.
ROTH: The company says parts and materials have gotten more expensive, too. Even so, critics say the high costs and delays are intentional. This spring, two U.S. senators, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Indiana's Jim Banks, opened an investigation to what those delays might mean for public safety. And in August, the fire department in La Crosse, Wisconsin, filed a lawsuit against the three big companies saying they're working together to keep supply limited and prices high. The companies have denied that. The fire department in Ann Arbor, meanwhile, is still waiting for its new truck. It should arrive by the end of the decade.
For NPR News, I'm Alisa Roth in Wyoming, Minnesota.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOS DEF SONG, "HIP HOP") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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