InvestigateTV+ Weekend: A firetruck backlog across America
(InvestigateTV) — Firetruck orders backlogged across the country – a problem Brendan Keefe finds is costing taxpayers and potentially lives. Built by hand and often built to order. Now some fire chiefs say tradition may be slowing down the response.
A national firetruck shortage
Cities and counties across the nation are waiting years for new fire trucks, and taxpayers are paying double the cost. Some firefighters are using trucks that are older than they are.
Private equity has consolidated more than two dozen manufacturers into just three companies that now control the majority of the fire truck market.
While profit margins soar on the backlog of orders, firefighters and families face risks every day waiting for help. National Investigative Reporter Brendan Keefe begins with a Chicago fire that killed five people. The 24-year-old ladder truck failed while some of those victims were waiting to be rescued from a burning third-floor apartment.
Custom trucks create backlog
Across the country, fire departments are struggling with an unprecedented backlog of firetruck orders, and custom trucks are a big part of the problem. While customization makes sense in many cases—whether it’s specialized extrication equipment or configurations designed for cities with narrow, post-Civil War-era streets—it also means long delivery times (sometimes three years or more) and costs that have skyrocketed by as much as 65% in just four years.
Faced with aging fleets and shrinking budgets, National Investigative Reporter Brendan Keefe discovered departments are increasingly turning to stock trucks, which manufacturers can crank out much faster. But stock trucks come with their own challenges, forcing fire chiefs to make tough calls about which customizations are truly necessary and which ones they can live without.
We investigate the long habit and tradition of ordering custom – and the idea of breaking tradition to get new replacement equipment into communities faster.
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Reporter Susan Campbell shows how quickly stolen information can threaten the benefits people depend on.
Subscription costs up nearly 50% since 2020
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