Berlin fire truck cost part of national crisis

The national fire truck crisis is now an emergency for the Berlin Fire Company, the Town of Berlin, and all the residents in the volunteer company’s service area.

As President David Fitzgerald pointed out to the mayor and Town Council this week, the company must find a way to keep pace with a rapid surge in equipment prices.

Characterizing this increase as a rocketing rise in costs is no exaggeration: a truck that cost roughly half a million dollars six years ago now commands more than a million—assuming the equipment can even be purchased in a timely manner.

This past June, the International Association of Fire Fighters reported that fire departments across the U.S. and Canada are waiting up to four and a half years for new trucks while paying double or triple what those same vehicles cost five years ago.

The cause, according to the IAFF is two decades of private-equity-driven consolidation have left just three manufacturers controlling more than 70% of the market.

While the IAFF strenuously argues that this is an immediate public safety threat, one could easily argue it has evolved into a matter of national security.

When the strategies and pricing of private investment groups increase the risk of the family home burning to the ground, the situation looks less like the free market at work and more like extortion—pay up or pay the price.

Beyond gobbling up massive chunks of local budgets and starving other municipal services, these market-cornering tactics place an unfair burden on small towns that have many other obligations and limited sources of revenue.

In the meantime, Berlin, neighboring communities, and county government officials must join for serious conversations to address these exorbitant equipment prices and unreasonable delivery timelines.

We cannot afford to wait until this smoldering crisis bursts into flames.