Manteca may spend $200,000 to buy and equip a pair of used fire engines.

The need is based on a number pressing issues:

*There are engines in reserve — essentially back-up to frontline engines — that are proving impossible to repair due to their age and the fact they were built by American LaFrance that has gone out of business making parts virtually impossible to obtain.

*In the past month, three of the city’s four front line fire engines needed repairs that put them out of service at the same time.

*Two replacement engines that have been ordered for frontline service — they now cost $1 million plus apiece — won’t be delivered to the city for another two years.

*The city needs to order two more fire engines to have in place by 2028 before those frontline units start becoming unreliable. It now takes four to five years from the time an engine order is placed for them to be delivered.

Manteca Fire Chief Dave Marques stressed that the loss of the three frontline engines due to repair needs and relying on the aging reserve fleet didn’t create a dangerous situation.

That’s because automatic aid arrangements in place — especially with Lathrop Manteca Fire District that has a station to the south of the city on Union Road and a second fire station to the east of Manteca at Lathrop at Austin roads — assures those engines would respond in the event backup engines couldn’t for some reason.

The request to use $200,000 from Measure M public safety tax reserves the council will consider when they meet Tuesday at 6 p.m. is designed to avoid the deteriorating status of the city’s reserve fleet from potentially creating a public safety problem in the future.

Arrangements have been made to buy two fire engines from the City of Fremont.

One would be obtained “right away’ and the other within a year or so when the Bay Area city takes delivery on a new replacement engine.

The used fire engines the city may buy are significantly newer than Manteca’s reserve engines . They are also newer than at least two pieces of frontline equipment Manteca will keep in service until they can afford replacements.

The two other frontline response units include a 15 year-old ladder truck and a 16 year-old engine.

Fremont follows the accepted standard of retiring frontline engines every 10 years due to wear and tear as well as increased maintenance needs that can jeopardize the ability for the engine to be available when needed.

Manteca has two frontline engines that were placed into service in 2021.

The city will take delivery next year of a replacement ladder truck for its aerial platform truck that has been in use since 2008. It is the department’s fifth frontline response unit.

The city has five fire stations and uses four fire engines and the ladder truck for frontline service.

Some of the backup engines the city is now using sit for months unable to be utilized due to the inability to locate parts.

The actual cost of the engines the city is buying from Fremont are a small part of the $200,000 being requested.

The initial engine will cost $15,000 and the second engine slightly more. Both engines are not coming from Fremont’s frontline service but rather its reserve fleet that is newer than Manteca’s.

More than $150,000 will be needed to equip the two engines before Manteca can put them into service.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin