Hallie Lauer
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
(TNS)

Jul. 22—With decades-old vehicles languishing away at the city’s repair shop and others limping along on service calls, Pittsburgh City Council wants to know the extent of the problems with the fleet and how much it will cost to upgrade the vehicles.

For years, public safety and other city officials have lamented the status of ambulances, fire trucks, police cruisers and garbage trucks. Ambulances have broken down on their way to emergency calls, police cruisers are well beyond their lifetime, and the older the vehicles get the harder it becomes to repair them.

Despite the influx of money the city received as part of the federal COVID-19 pandemic relief, not enough money has been funneled into the vehicles. If the city started ordering new vehicles today, it would be years before they were on the road.

In an effort to get a better picture of how bad the problem is, Councilman Bobby Wilson introduced legislation Tuesday morning that would require the Equipment Leasing Authority to submit a fleet efficiency report each year by Sept. 1.

Inside the report, the authority will have to include each vehicle, the year, make and model and its mileage, as well as total annual maintenance and repair costs per vehicle.

It also asks the authority to note any vehicles that have exceeded a maintenance cost threshold of 30% the purchase price of the vehicle.

The authority also is tasked with providing cost projections for the next three years and an analysis of areas that have too many or too few vehicles.

“We need to understand what is really going on with the city’s fleet,” Mr. Wilson said in a statement. “Ambulances are breaking down, fire trucks need constant repairs, and the Department of Public Works is recycling functional parts from old vehicles to retrofit ones in current use. Residents, as well as Council, deserve to know how many vehicles are in disrepair and how much it will cost to fix or buy new ones.”

Previously, city officials have estimated that it would cost the city about $22 million annually to upgrade and maintain the entire fleet.

The 2025 budget allocates just $6 million to purchase new vehicles, and five-year projections show that number decreasing over time.

“We’ve neglected the fleet for far, far too long,” Councilman Anthony Coghill said during a meeting regarding the status of the fleet in May. Mr. Coghill also sits on the Equipment Leasing Authority, which is responsible for purchasing the city’s vehicles.

Mr. Coghill has pushed in the past for reallocation of the federal COVID-19 funds to buy more vehicles, some of which the city has purchased but has not yet received.

With the expiration of those funds, increased debt service payments and shrinking property tax revenues, the city is facing lean financial years ahead, with little wiggle room to further invest in the fleet.

The status of the fleet became a flashpoint during the spring Democratic mayoral primary race between Mayor Ed Gainey and Allegheny County Controller Corey O’Connor.

Mr. Gainey noted that the disinvestment in the fleet is something that happened over years, dating back to when the city was under state financial oversight. Mr. O’Connor, who won the race, made it a campaign point that if elected in the fall, he will make reinvestment into the fleet a priority.

“Maintaining the quality of our vehicles is critical to public health and safety, and the state of our fleet right now constitutes a serious problem, as the City faces financial challenges in the years ahead,” City Controller Rachael Heisler said in a statement.

Council co

Karen Kucher
The San Diego Union-Tribune
(TNS)

A $12 million construction project at the Ramona Airport will provide much-needed improvements to Cal Fire’s air-attack base there and allow it to more quickly load fire retardant onto larger air tankers, including one that carries up to 4,000 gallons that will be based in Ramona.

The work, expected to start next month, calls for contractors to demolish the current fire-retardant reloading bays and build redesigned ones that allow planes to more quickly get back into the air. The job is expected to take eight to 12 months to finish.

The Ramona Air Attack Base has operated at the rural airport since 1957. The renovations will be focused on the north side of the airport and are not expected to impact any civilian flight operations, Cal Fire spokesperson Capt. Mike Cornette said.

He said the current configuration requires pilots to “kind of loop around” to point a plane’s tail toward the bays, where they are hooked up to a hose dispensing fire retardant. Larger aircraft cannot tail-in load because their wingspans are too large.

“Retardant loading hosing must be pulled out to (large) aircraft as the (aircraft) are pulled parallel to the loading pits,” a state budget report explained.

The new ones will be more efficient, officials say, because they will allow aircraft to pull off the airport taxiway directly to where they can be resupplied. Tankers can then go directly onto the taxiway and return to the runway.

That “pass through” design is expected to cut down on delays, resupply aircraft more quickly and get them in the air sooner, Cornette said. “It’s going to be more efficient for our air tankers to reload,” he said.

Part of the project also calls for redoing concrete pavement installed in 2000 that did not meet design specifications and which has fractured and crumbled. Airplane engines can be damaged if they suck pieces of concrete into intakes.

A state budget change proposal that outlined the $12 million request said Cal Fire has had to perform maintenance and repairs as mitigation for the problematic pavement.

Once all the work is completed, one of seven C-130H airplanes that Cal Fire has acquired from the U.S. Coast Guard is to be assigned to Ramona. Two have already been deployed elsewhere in the state.

The large tankers, which are four-engine prop planes, are being retrofitted and will be able to drop more than three times the amount of fire retardant than the 1,200 gallons that S-2T air tankers based in Ramona can carry.

Fire officials say several steps will be taken to ensure “uninterrupted air response” during the construction project, including plans to keep the two air tankers currently stationed at Ramona fully loaded and available.

Officials also plan to double the number of air tankers dispatched to confirmed fires. While they normally send two tankers for an initial attack, they now plan to send four. That’s because the tankers will have to fly to a Riverside County air base to get more retardant.

“We are going to send those two additional air tankers to help supplement that extended flight time,” Cornette said.

The agency also has plans to activate a temporary reload base at Brown Field Municipal Airport near the border if there is an “extended attack” fire or some kind of special circumstance. When called up, contractors can quickly set up a temporary facility to supply fire retardant.

Fire officials say they are “well-resourced” with seven helicopters they can call upon when a fire ignites, including ones operated by the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department, San Diego Gas & Electric, Cal Fire/San Diego Cou

The Brunswick (GA) Fire Department held a push-in ceremony recently for its new 107-foot midmount aerial ladder truck.

The extra reach on the ladder will help the department get to the top of the town’s tallest buildings. It will also help the city meet fire insurance standards that will keep premiums lower for residents, thebrunswicknews.com reported.

The ladder is a midmount, which makes the truck easier to get it around and under the city’s many live oaks and tight streets, according to the report.

The ladder truck has a 2,000-gallon-per-minute (gpm) pump and a 500-gallon water tank.

Specifications

Chassis	Enforcer™
Body	Ascendant® 107’ Heavy-Duty Aerial Ladder
Actual Overall Height	11′ 11″
Engine	PACCAR MX-13
Horsepower	510 hp
Front Suspension	TAK-4® Independent Front Suspension
Rear Suspension	Spring
Electrical System	Command Zone™
Foam System	Husky™ 3
Pump	Waterous Midship
Pump GPM	2000 gpm
Tank	Foam Water
Tank Size	500 gallons

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On Saturday, July 19, 2025, officials from the Loudoun County Combined Fire and Rescue System, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, and County Administration joined first responders, local leaders, and community members for the official Dedication Ceremony for the new Aldie Fire and Rescue Station No. 7.

The facility is designed to achieve LEED Silver designation. 

This 23,000 square foot facility, located at 39855 Little River Turnpike, replaces the previous station and includes apparatus bays, bunkrooms, a training room, a break room, restrooms and showers, food preparation and dining areas, laundry and decontamination areas, supply storage, a gear and hose drying area, a breathing apparatus air compressor room, a fitness room, offices and a repair shop. This station houses Engine 607, Medic 607, Rescue 607, Brush 607, Brush UTV 607, Utility 607, and Wildland Support 607, staffed with career and volunteer personnel that remain ready to respond to emergency incidents 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Senior Deputy County Administrator Erin McLellan emceed the event with Chair At-Large Phyllis Randall, Dulles District Supervisor Matthew Letourneau, Little River District Supervisor Laura TeKrony, Delegate Geary Higgins, Department of Transportation and Capital Infrastructure Deputy Director Scott Worrest, President of the Aldie Heritage Association Eugene Gulland, Systemwide Fire Chief James Williams, Aldie Volunteer Fire Department (AVFD) Assistant Chief Jeff Flippo, LCFR CAD Systems Analyst and Lifetime AVFD Member Mike Carter, addressing the crowd. Each noted the hard work of all the County agencies and community groups involved in the planning, construction and opening of the new station.

In lieu of a ribbon cutting, Fire and Rescue personnel, County, and local leadership participated in a traditional “uncoupling ceremony” replacing the standard ribbon and scissors with two sections of fire hose.

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A new vehicle manufactured by Pierce was added to the Springfield Fire Department on July 21, making the fleet four according to wjhg.com. Firefighters and residents joined together for a push-in ceremony to celebrate the new addition.  

The new truck was also dedicated to Chief Chris Adams who passed away in 2007 in the line of duty. Chief Brian Eddins stated in an article that his goal is to carry on Adams’ vision of what he wanted the department to be.  

Although the truck wasn’t initially in the department’s plans, Eddins shared to mypanhandle.com that the demand for fire trucks is extremely high and if not ordered before a certain period of time, the wait could be about four to five years.   

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