ATLANTA — Anyone who spends time in Atlanta—including residents, workers, commuters and visitors—will want to know this: The Atlanta Fire Department will continue to experience critical shortages of fire-fighting equipment.
This comes after the city approved $18 million in emergency funding to bring Atlanta Fire up to full strength, but according to officials, the needed equipment won’t arrive anytime soon.
No one knows better than Atlanta's firefighters about the crucial need to replace their aging, broken-down fleet fast.
In that same thought, firefighters are also relieved about the allocated money. But now, everyone understands there is no “overnight delivery” of the specialized equipment that Atlanta firefighters need.
Officials said the equipment could be years away or longer.
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“Just given where we are with the backlogs across the nation,” City Council Public Safety Committee Chair Dustin Hillis said Monday, “even if we order these items today, we’re unfortunately not going to see them until, an absolute best-case scenario, 18 months. But more than likely anywhere from 24 to 36 months out.”
Aside from the equipment on this new order, the city is still waiting on six fire vehicles on a previous one. At a public safety meeting in October, Fire Chief Roderick Smith told the committee that it's the factories pushing back delivery dates, which are now a year to 18 months away.
“And that is attributable to supply chain issues,” Smith said.
So firefighter Nate Bailey, president of the Atlanta Professional Firefighters Union, said Monday that he hopes the city will soon follow up this latest order with another order, and another, for the new equipment they’ll need even further into the future.
“Given the factory lead time and how long it takes to get the trucks, and having so many repairs at one time,” Bailey said, “this equipment, this apparatus, allows us to save lives. Keep investing, keep buying, and keep modernizing our fleet.”
The Atlanta City Council and Mayor Andre Dickens said this new $18 Million order for new fire equipment is just the beginning.
“We will continue to ensure they have the resources and support they need to keep our entire city safe and secure,” Dickens said Tuesday.