Manteca fire engines have rolled to Ripon 85 times since the start of the year.

The vast majority are medical emergencies when the only manned Ripon Fire engine is on a call, which also typically is a medical emergency as well.

Either a Manteca District Ambulance unit, or if the sole Ripon Fire ambulance is available, responds with the Manteca engine.

Last year, Manteca engines responded to Ripon at least 168 times under an automatic aid agreement that expires in October 2025. The agreement means dispatch automatically sends the closest engine company to an emergency whether it is stationed in Manteca or Ripon.

Since Ripon is unable to man more than one fire engine at the time, a Ripon unit responding into Manteca is now an extremely rare occurrence.

In the past week it was believed at one point Ripon had responded to an accident on Highway 99 that initially was believed to be within Manteca’s city limits. It ended up being just outside of the City of Manteca in Ripon Fire territory

The Manteca council is expected to pull the plug on the automatic agreement in the coming weeks by activating a 30 day notice clause.

That would leave mutual aid in place.

Instead of Manteca automatically responding, a request would need to be made.

That would add time to the response to an emergency in Ripon from Manteca.

But is also allows Manteca to determine what engine to send and — in the rare advent of a major issue in Manteca city coverage — to not send an engine if Manteca is not adequately covered.

Currently, the engine sent most frequently to Ripon is the Manteca engine company stationed at the Atherton Drive and Woodward Avenue station.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com