When there’s a fire, we expect the trucks to come as soon as possible but it’s getting harder and harder for fire departments to even get those trucks.
“So, when we started looking at fire engines, some manufacturers were telling me anywhere from two to three years that they would have us a fire engine,” said Salem Fire Chief Steve Simon.
An hour up Interstate 81, the rural volunteer Raphine Fire Department is facing the same issues.
“I mean, if we don’t have the equipment and the trucks to get to you and your house catches on fire, then that’s a big issue. We’re not there to do our job,” said Celsea Brooks, Captain for the department.
“We know that the manufacturers are having delayed deliveries. The engines are about four years old; the ladders are about five. Currently, the City of Roanoke has four engines on order and one ladder truck on order,” said David Hoback, Roanoke Fire Chief.
So last week, when Salem dedicated a new truck, it was a big deal.
“So, what we had just in the last year, we had a lot of trucks that were going out of service,” said Simon.
Salem Fire Chief Steve Simon told local leaders, who assembled for a ceremony called Wet Down/Push-In, where the new truck is washed with water from the one it replaces, that the department’s resources were at times down to a trickle.
“There was a Saturday night when I had to call the chief of the City of Roanoke and say, ' You got any fire trucks I can use? Because we had some problems,” Simon told the gathering.
Most departments hope to get 20 years from a fire truck. A long time, when you consider wear and tear, from rapid accelerations under urgent conditions.
“We have one ladder truck right now that’s front line ... that has been in the fleet for 16 years, has to have a brand-new engine in it. Almost $60,000 for a brand-new engine,” Hoback said.
And often it’s not the vehicle itself, but all the fire-specific working parts.
“You know, we had one, we have a nozzle down, and we were told six months before we get the nozzle on the tip of the ladder. It’ll be six months until we can get that fixed,” Hoback said.
In Raphine, where there are far fewer calls than in local cities, the wear and tear is still a frustration. And often parts are difficult to find as equipment ages.
“Yeah, things start breaking on it. Older it gets, the harder it is to replace that part,” confirmed Brooks.
As if the delay isn’t enough, there’s also the cost. The average price of fire equipment is far outpacing the cost of inflation.
In a United States Senate hearing in late 2025 investigating the cause of the rapid increases in prices and declining availability, Senator Josh Hawley said that prices have gone up 100 percent in just the past few years.
The Raphine fire department is replacing a truck long past its heyday. The department purchased the truck in 2000 for $400,000. The cost of the new one will be just over a million dollars.
For a volunteer department like Raphine, where they raise money for their equipment with events like chicken barbeques and the annual carnival, a million dollars is a heavy lift.
In Salem -- it cost just over 3 million for two new trucks, and other equipment, including three new ambulances. They shortened the timeline by purchasing mostly stock vehicles, with just a few custom upgrades. They purchased from Sutphen a small, family-owned manufacturer, in Dublin, Ohio. The small company delivered two fire trucks in less than a year.
Though mostly stock, Salem added a few custom touches the department felt were necessary to meet their needs. One upgrade was studier stainless steel steps on the back of the truck.
“So those are a more sturdy platform,” said Battalion Chief Brian Hollins, pointing to the back of the truck. “You’ve got to hold a lot more weight. Traditional steps are a lot smaller, easier to roll an ankle and fall off. These are a lot sturdier steps to make it safer for our personnel packing hoses,” he said.
The price increases and delayed deliveries by most accounts are the result of the pandemic, when fire trucks weren’t being produced. And now the industry and departments are facing a sort of long COVID, as companies struggle to regain their workforces.
“After COVID, things just started slowing down. It just takes longer. Parts take longer. ...They say they don’t have the people to, you know, in the manufacturing shops ... like they used to,” Brooks said.
“Yeah, so pre-COVID, the fire engines that we were purchasing would have been probably around $600,000. Now they’re close to a million dollars. Other manufacturers, they’re purchasing ... fire trucks in the 1.1 to 1.2 million. So, you’re seeing truly 50 to 60 percent markups across the board from 2017, 2018 to 2026,” said Simon.
But other than those beefier steps, a special storage compartment and a rack to hold medical supplies, the truck is stock. It will do the job, but it’s not the same as pre-COVID years when almost every department designed a truck for the specific needs of its community.
“We designed it from the frame rails up. It wasn’t like, okay, here’s a ladder truck and then you put all your stuff on it. No, it’s from the frame rails, tires, they’re the- Everything. Everything from axles to whatever we wanna put on,” Hoback said.
So, whether it’s a major wreck on the interstate or a structure fire in just about any community, people should know that one of the lingering effects of COVID is a difficult and expensive delayed response from the industry that nobody saw coming, but fire and EMS departments will be dealing with for years.
“Because once again, you wanna go out there, when the bell rings, they want that truck to hit that road immediately. So, it’s not a lot waiting around where we can go, and oh, we need to fix this, or we need to fix that before we can do. So you really need to stay on top of it,” said Simon.
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