CityofSantaBarbara
The City of Santa Barbara Fire Department is pleased to announce a significant enhancement to its emergency response capabilities with the recent acquisition of two state-of-the-art fire engines.
This investment underscores our commitment to ensuring the safety and well-being of our community. The new fire engines were manufactured by Pierce Manufacturing out of Appleton Wisconsin.
They were custom-built for the City to exact specifications laid out by a team of City planners to ensure they meet the highest standards of safety, efficiency, and technological innovation. Equipped with cutting-edge features, these engines will play a crucial role in our ongoing mission to protect lives and property.
“The new engines were acquired using a new lease-purchase program approved by the City’s Public Works and Finance Departments. The lease-purchase agreement allows the City to pay off the apparatus over a seven-year period of time at a very low interest rate. This allowed money that had been set aside to be used to acquire other rigs for the City’s fleet. We are extremely appreciative of the efforts in assisting us to bolster our fleet. We have two additional apparatus in the pipeline using this same lease-purchase agreement. They are due to arrive in late 2024 or early 2025,” stated Fire Chief Chris Mailes.
The City Fire Department extends its sincere appreciation to our community, Council members and City departments for their support in making this important investment a reality.
The new fire engines will be placed at Fire Station 5 located on 2505 Modoc Rd. and Fire Station 1 located on 121 W. Carrillo St.
These two engines will serve the citizens of Santa Barbara for 25+ years. We welcome them into our fleet and know they will serve the community well.
These fire engines last 25 years, that means these two are replacing two fire engines that have been in service since 1998. Should they be replaced after 30 or 35, is that what everyone here is proposing? There is so much waste in government but I have hard time finding it here. The public deserves emergency equipment that is reliable. Fire service with good equipment is essential for every community. Without it, you cant get insurance on mortgages and without that, no one can buy a house or a condo or an apartment building. It doesn’t really matter how many fires they go to. Without a properly equipped fire department, our community would look very different. Also, to conflate this with the ambulance service seems unfair. I agree there are issues with that. But this is a press release from the City of SB showing the community they have put two new rigs into service that they are proud of. The stations that they will be housed at are two of the busiest. It disheartening to me to see so much negativity toward this tax payer expense. As a home owner and tax payer, this seems like money well spent.
It sounds like the ambulance contract isn’t going so well. Maybe they could trade in some of the brand new ambulances WE bought prematurely for the new fire trucks? where do I sign up for being the purchasing agent for the fire dept? Better yet my wife would love that job, spending other peoples money with no responsibility attached.
That’s the county not the city
Duh! The City and county are the same thing ( both have the virus)
While I agree that both the city and the county are irresponsible and all over the place with their spending I will say that from my internal experience that the city spending within the public safety department is much more appropriate than that of the county.
For instance, city lifeguards have trucks, County doesn’t. But the county fire dept has millions to spend on ambulances for a contract that wasn’t yet approved by the BOS superseding the review board. While the city gets two new engines, which is much more sensible for a fire dept. I don’t really see the comparison.
Also slick diss on your wife, lol
Making fun of your spouse is hilarious….if you’re an asshole
Yes Sac, that was the point that clearly went over your head. Hence why I commented that Anon had dissed their wife.
Happy Sunday 😊
What kind of person talks about their wife on a public forum like that? Hopefully someone that cares about her will tell her that she deserves better and she will move on.
SB_TAHOE – right? Not sure who is worse, the one insulting his/her wife or the one giving him props for the “slick diss on your wife, laughing out loud.”
I like the term “enhancement”. It sounds like something a fireman would write. And now there will a number of them “polishing off” those new red trucks during the day. And taxpayers will help them be happy.
Dave,
Bingo! Wanna be a millionaire? Become a fire fighter! No doubt many are heroes and risk their lives for us, but come on, there needs to be check and balance as it relates to pension equity.
The notion that we drop AMR and take on dozens of County employees is a nonstarter. If for no other reason, but pension funding/liability. No doubt the Union wants more due paying members. Fully admit paying for private contracting for paramedic services are expensive, but to take on multiple employees subject to collective bargaining and new fire equipment in the form of ambulances makes no sense to the taxpayer.
NotReally – What in the world? Two down votes so far? Why? A “fireman” would use “enhancement,” are they suggesting a “firefighter” would not? Polish and training during the day, videos at night (or day and night depending on the amount of polishing); and, in between, what could be nasty and dangerous fires. Absolutely and without a doubt your taxes keep them happy. And, when you butt is on the line with your house or other property getting charred, does their service to you keep you and yours happy?
Less than 5% of their call outs are for fires. Most are for medical emergencies, etc.
This PR piece neglects to tell us what the cost of these monsters is. Gimmicky financing like “lend lease” is another profit pit for fund manages and such. They also don’t tell us what the “enhancements” are and what they do to benefit our safety. It the enhancements means merely the firefighters have better seats when responding to the rate actual fire I would like to know. This piece also neglects to tell us what was wrong with the older machines, how old were they, what is happening to them and other such relevant things that would help the community know if this was a good decision or just another empire building effort by the fire department.
Why do these expensive to operate large rigs follow the ambulance?
Notice that the “firemen” did not say the City purchased the new rigs, they “invested” in them. Kind of like their union.
Lots of the usual complaints about upgrading emergency/rescue/life-saving equipment….
So tell us, folks, just what exactly DO you approve your taxes being spent on?
Maybe identify yourselves to the FD so they don’t waste your precious tax dollars saving your home and or life when you need it. Heck, you want to get riled up? Go look up how much it costs to save a home from a fire…I bet it’s a lot.
We live in an area where fires destroy homes yearly. Where wildfires threaten entire neighborhoods every couple years. Where ocean and or mountain rescues are almost weekly. Where life happens. But yeah, those who save our butts should be stuck with outdated equipment….
Sac – always the counterculture opinion no matter what the debate is.
So tell us, why shouldn’t people be outraged that county fire bought millions of dollars worth (wasn’t it over $100 million?) on ambulances before they even won the contract? The contract they lost fair and square and only won because of their cronies on the BOS?
Obviously a lot of people miss that this piece is talking about the city and not the county fire department, but nonetheless, why should people not be aloud to call out and check the expenditures that we all collectively fund?
It’s not like you are paying a boat load on taxes but some are, and as a collective we have every right to question the decisions of those responsible for these purchases.
Last time o checked, houses aren’t burning down (from wildfires or otherwise) because of an unavailability of engines.
SBStoner – For myself, I find it best not to reply to a person that continually takes an opposite point of view. It’s not that I can’t handle their viewpoint, it just gets old, time after time, and not just for myself but their replies to others. They usually go on and on, in the opposite direction, no matter the subject. I believe most people such as this live for something to comment against and choose to disregard their replies.
DOULIE – sounds like you’re describing SBSTONER to a “T.”
I know you’re not though, so let me ask you – why do you think I’m not allowed an opinion on this subject? Honestly, I think it’s crazy how much people kick and scream every time there’s an article about some public agency buying something with our tax dollars (the exact reason we pay them) to help that agency perform better for US. This is for US. People here act like fire fighters are out joyriding in their boat and now new engines. Those vehicles are to save US.
That’s just my opinion.
Doulie, you’re absolutely right.
And your feedback was only taken as “suppression of my opinions” by the Edhat troll king himself
Fire and Police are vital Public Safety components in local government. They are “Must funded” when you have BILLIONS of dollars in property values in your particular jurisdiction- you need a full time professional Fire Dept. Unfortunately, Fire Department’s are not revenue generators, for the most part (not including the Fed’s and State paying local jurisdictions big money to respond to conflagrations). The story is about the City purchasing two new fire engines. Typically, in the past, the lifespan of an in-service fire engine is about 20-25 years. That is a 35,000 lbs vehicle that starts cold, is driven hard and parked until the next call. (Over 10,000 annually). The manufacturers of these fire engines no longer make the “simple fire engine” of years past. Diesel powered fire engines of the past were very simple and straightforward. Now, the diesels are complicated-computer driven-emission choked nightmares that will probably be in the shop and out of service 10x more than the older versions. Good luck getting 20 yrs of sevice. That the County is providing ambulance’s, and fire crews have to respond to every Ambulance call is something that needs evaluation. In many countries, Paramedics are on motorcycles (like cop bikes) to quickly respond and assess the patient- If transport or more manpower is needed, it then responds. Thinking outside the box is frowned on in Police and Fire organizations in the U.S. Unfortunately, “we’ve always done it this way” is the norm when it comes to policies and Administration- initially, change means work. This Ambulance program may be a step in the right direction only if it reduces 35,000 lbs fire engines from contantly rolling….
We sure have come a long way! First it was “Defund”, which saw disastrous results where implemented so it changed to “Defund doesn’t mean ‘defund’ it means take their money away and put it towards something us” and finally we’re back to “Must fund”. That sure was a crazy ride, let’s not do it again.
Show us where anyone said “defund the fire department.”
“That sure was a crazy ride” – only if your logic, reasoning and reading comprehension skills are lacking
“Fire and POLICE are vital Public Safety components in local government. They are “Must funded””. Are you denying that you and many others here have called for the “defunding” of police?
This article is about the fire department. Are you physically unable to stay on topic? Does it cause actual pain? You avoid it like it does. Must be tough.
Also, I never said that, Coastwatch did. You really should read more thoroughly. Kinda embarassing….. for you.
Also, also… I never once said “defund the police.”