Rapid growth in southwest Manteca is having a ripple effect on response time to medical emergencies, fires, and accidents citywide.

Fire Chief Dave Marques shared Wednesday during a City of Manteca Facebook town hall meeting regarding public safety that it is now rare for firefighters “to be at a call in less than five minutes” citywide.

The five-minute target, that the fire department had been hitting well over the majority of time in most parts of the city for years, is critical for two reasons.

*Fires basically double in size every minute.

*Once a person has stopped breathing for five minutes or more their chances of avoiding severe crippling consequences and even death climbs significantly.

And when it comes to southwest Manteca a 10-minute or longer response to 9-1-1 call is often the rule for more than 2,000 households.

The reasons for the drop in response time are three-fold.

*Fire department call volume has skyrocketed 43 percent between 2017 and 2023 to just under 11,000 calls. As of Tuesday, fire calls were at 9,460 meaning they will likely top 11,000 by year’s end.

*The lack of a fire station along with the required nine firefighters for 24/7 staffing in southwest Manteca requires the five engine companies with 15 firefighters overall on any given shift to often answer calls outside their assigned service areas.

*A small but serious issue is unreliable, aging fire equipment.

This happens when the frontline engine at a station won’t start.

When that happens firefighters scramble to their backup engine.

Earlier this month, two incidents underscored how the city is pressing its luck.

One fire engine broke down responding to a medical emergency. That required a second engine to be dispatched from farther away.

The other involved both the frontline and backup engines both not starting when the firefighters were dispatched to a medical emergency from the Louise Avenue station.

Fire engines — that cost $600,000 before the pandemic — now are $1.2 million to purchase and equip. They more often than not once an order is placed take two years plus to be delivered.

Measure Q — should it pass Tuesday — would enable Manteca in a relatively short time to hire nine firefighters to staff a second engine company at the Union Road station that was built to house an engine and manpower for two engine companies.

That would reduce the number of times crews at the other four fire stations are the first responders into the area served by Union Road.

Marques said the city is close to securing land in southwest Manteca for a sixth fire station.

The addition of a three-quarter cent sales tax for 20 years would mean a new station could be constructed sooner than later.

The sales tax also would allow a 20-year bond wedded with growth fees to build a new 45,579 square-foot police station at the future extensions of Wawona Street and Milo Candini Drive just north of the Big League Dreams sports complex.

The current station built in 1975 has 20,500 square feet with 15 percent of that space dedicated to an evidence building.

All available closet space has long since been converted to offices. The 20,500 square feet incudes a triple-wide modular.

The current station has aging mechanical systems that are at the end of their life expectancy as well as significant security issues for officers and dispatchers.

Police Chief Stephen Schluer noted calls for service has increased 28 percent during the last five years, outpacing growth.

That has led to longer response times.

*Priority 1 calls — incidents where a life is in danger or a felony is in progress — now takes an average of 5 minutes and 17 seconds for an officer to arrive on scene once the dispatcher answers a call.

*Priority 2 calls — incidents where crimes have recently been committed such as residential burglaries but responsible have fled — now takes an average of 9 minutes and 26 seconds.

*Priority 3 calls — all other calls — are now averaging 13 minutes and 40 seconds.

The police have the same issue with aging and reliable vehicles as the fire department does.

The city just recently acquired five police vehicles and have two more that they will purchase this budget  year.

The five were obtained from one-time money from the CHP’s share of the state taxes on legal marijuana sales. The other two are being paid for with one-time federal COVID relief funds.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com