Manteca Fire — due to the inability of Ripon Consolidated Fire to financially staff more than one engine — responded to almost one fire call in Ripon every other day last year.
It is a situation that has caught the attention of Manteca Mayor Gary Singh given what started as an automatic aid agreement has basically allowed Ripon to rely on Manteca for fire protection.
Singh made it clear he favors communities relying on each other in emergency situations but he is concerned about what has become a somewhat one sided deal.
The financial problems of the Ripon agency has caused a huge spike in Manteca engines being dispatched to that community.
And with new front line engines arriving that cost $1.1 million each, the Ripon situation will add considerable to the wear and tear of the new Manteca apparatus.
Even more problematic, the engine that is typically the closest to Ripon if it is not on a call is the aerial engine at the Powers Avenue station.
It is being replaced with a $1.7 million tiller truck in the fall.
That would mean Manteca’s most expensive piece of firefighting equipment will be logging more miles than it would if Ripon had two manned fire engines instead of one.
The Manteca firefighters are also paid more.
A starting firefighter in Ripon earns $21.23 an hour compared to $28 in Manteca.
The Ripon department can only afford to place three firefighters on a shift.
Based on that, they can’t meet the minimum of two firefighters per engine company to dispatch a second fire engine.
As a result, all three firefighters are assigned to one engine.
A structure fire in Ripon in many cases now means it requires Manteca to show up before any firefighter can enter the building.
The hard-fast federal standard is two firefighters need to be in the outside when a minimum of two firefighters enter a burning building.
Ripon’s decimated budget that has cut into required overhead, also means Manteca often dispatches a battalion chief to taken control of the incident
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
