Soaring prices for fire engines and yearslong wait times for delivery have strained local government budgets and placed communities in danger, firefighters told Congress on Wednesday.
Dennis Ruben, the fire chief in Kansas City, Kan., said it appeared that “corporate greed” was to blame. In prepared testimony, he called for Congress to intervene, suggesting that lawmakers pursue “enforceable manufacturing guidelines” on pricing, delivery times and how replacement parts are made available.
“There must come a day of reckoning when the manufacturers of our most important tools are held accountable for runaway pricing and extended delivery times,” he said.
The New York Times reported earlier this year that Wall Street executives have led an aggressive consolidation of the industry, cutting manufacturing lines and seeking to generate more profits from fire engine sales. Fire departments have seen prices jump in recent years. Order backlogs have grown, leaving departments waiting, sometimes for years, to replace rigs while struggling to find parts to keep older engines in service.
During the Los Angeles wildfires this year, many of the city’s fire engines were out of service, and officials there described struggles to replace rigs as a result of high costs and long wait times.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers is now demanding information from the manufacturers and asking for input from fire departments. On Wednesday, a Senate subcommittee focused on disaster preparedness was holding a hearing in which lawmakers looked for ways to hold manufacturers accountable for the recent strain on the industry.
Senator Josh Hawley, a Republican of Missouri who is the chair of the subcommittee, said in a statement ahead of the hearing that major manufacturers “have prioritized profit over public safety.”
“Today’s hearing is the first step in holding industry accountable and improving fire response readiness across the country,” he said.
One of the dominant fire engine manufacturers is REV Group, formed in 2010 by a private-equity firm that sought to bring together a series of small specialty vehicle businesses. Company leaders said they hoped to create a streamlined industry that was more efficient and more profitable.
In remarks submitted ahead of Wednesday’s hearing, a senior REV Group executive, Mike Virnig, said fire engines are complex and customized vehicles that by their nature take a long time to produce. He said the industry had been strained by shortages in skilled labor, pandemic supply chain disruptions and the sudden availability of federal stimulus money that led governments to submit a flood of new orders for fire engine upgrades. He said the company last month broke ground on a major expansion of a South Dakota manufacturing facility.
“REV Group is committed to doing our part to increase production of fire trucks and decrease delivery times,” he said.
But Edward Kelly, head of the International Association of Fire Fighters, said in his prepared testimony that the industry’s consolidation had stifled competition. He said manufacturers had at times used their control over supply to impose surprise price hikes long after equipment had been ordered.
Mr. Kelly said the strain had left cities more vulnerable. He described departments across the country struggling with aging fleets, and fire stations forced to operate without the fire trucks they need.
“Lives are lost when fire trucks either fail or are unavailable when seconds count,” he said.
Mr. Kelly called on Congress to continue its oversight and to coordinate with the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice.
Mike Baker is a national reporter for The Times, based in Seattle.
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