Stretch a rubber band enough and eventually it’ll snap.

The same is true when it comes to an effective fire service.

It is why all of Manteca, and not just those able to afford to buy new $700,000 plus homes in the southwestern portion of the city, have a big stake in not just getting a sixth station built but the hiring of 18 additional firefighters.

Elected city leaders know this.

The question is how committed are they with all of the pressing demands to address arguably the most treacherous funding challenge.

The challenge is being able to add $4.6 million in annual reoccurring costs to cover salaries, retirement and payroll related expenses of 18 firefighters.

The marching orders city leaders have embraced in the existing general plan, as well as previous versions, when it comes to municipal fire service is a targeted five-minute response time.

That’s five minutes from the time an engine company is dispatched until it pulls up to the address where there is a fire or medical emergency.

The five minute goal is not pulled out of thin air.

It is based on a lot of data and analysis of outcomes that’s above even the pay grade of a city manager or a fire chief.

In a nutshell, it is the maximum time the odds are the situation at hand will be resolved with outcomes that are favorable in terms of property damage and the survivability or the functionality of a person in a medical crisis.

There are endless variables that skewer the five minute rule.

Even so, it stands as what a resident of an urban area should expect city leaders to work toward being in place when it comes to fire service.

The danger of just getting by is the cost incurred when the proverbial rubber band snaps.

It is in the form of financial and property losses exponentially larger than they could be.

When it comes to southwest Manteca, the fire department is literally functioning on borrowed time when it comes to structure fires.

It is because virtually every home in the area was built after the state mandated fire sprinklers in new residential construction.

Fire sprinklers aren’t a panacea.

What they do is buy time until the cavalry arrives.

Medical emergency calls, that account for 70 to 80 percent of the sound of fire engine sirens you hear, are another matter.

Time becomes a friend of the Grim Reaper.

And even if it doesn’t result in death, delayed basic life support to stabilize a wide array of patients from those suffering strokes, heart attack, major trauma and such rapidly deteriorates the ability to recover and function.

Stations are strategically placed to account for travel time.

Every turn a fire engine has to take is factored into the equation.

In a perfect world, each engine company is available and within its assigned district when a call comes in.

That is is far from being the case.

It is common throughout shifts for calls to stack on top of each other,  tying up engine companies assigned to a district prompting another engine to be dispatched.

Right now, that is happening way too much in southwest Manteca.

It requires a response from engine companies elsewhere in the city.

One might think just nine firefighters — the staffing of a sixth engine company — is needed only when the sixth station finally opens.

To be honest, the sixth engine company and manpower should be in place now even it is at Union Road station due to the 3,000 or so and growing households on the wrong side of the 5 minute response.

A lot of medical emergencies, severe auto collisions, and fires will be happening between now and 2029, when the sixth station is expected to be finished.

More to the point, the city could easily add 6,000 to 7,000 residents by then.

The rubber band will keep being stretched, stretched, and stretched.

When it snaps, a price will be paid.

It is why getting nine firefighters on a dedicated truck company (the 100-foot aerial tiller truck) needs to be a short horizon priority.

The tiller truck really should be used for what it is primarily designed for, to enhance structure fire attacks citywide. It’s an expansive $2 million piece of equipment.

Having it as the second company at Union Road to respond when the fire engine company is already committed to a call means an engine from a station either on Lathrop Road by Del Webb, Louise Avenue, Powers Avenue, or Atherton Drive and Woodward Avenue depending on what engine companies are available means other areas of the city won’t have response times drastically extended if they then get a call.

Ideally, the city would find a way to hire nine additional firefighters within a year to make two companies at the Union Road station a reality by mid-2026.

That then gives the city three years to get another nine firefighters on board when the sixth fire station opens in mid-2029.

That’s adding three firefighters a year over three years. 

They could be used in the meantime to reduce overtime and enhance response.

How the city gets there will be tricky.

Committing any Measure Q funding for even a part of the $2.3 million annual tab might be viewed as tricky given it’s a 20-year temporary tax.

But it would not be done in a vacuum.

Long before the sales tax expires, homes approved within community facility districts the city has recently obligated to pay extra for frontline public safety will have been built.

Two decades from now, room tax sharing with Great Wolf will be gone.

Committing $1 million from Measure Q to hire four of the nine initial firefighters would seem reasonable.

As the CFD funds come in, the $1 million annual diversion from Measure Q could be reduced.

The remainder could be shifted to Great Wolf room taxes at the end of 20 years.

Who knows, the city might demonstrate they were able to enhance public safety, add amenities, improve streets, and improve its homeless efforts that voters might just agree to an extension just as they did with the Measure K countywide sales tax for roads and transportation.

Measure Q clearly shouldn’t cover all of the fire department funding shortfalls.

As a wise man by the name of Dave Bricker, who was police chief in 2008 when the Great Recession was hammering the city, once told a citizens committee advocating slashing park expenditures to try and keep public safety funding whole, there’s more to keeping a city safe and livable than just frontline first responders.

The City Council has some tough decisions to make.

But getting nine more firefighters pronto shouldn’t be one of them.

If in 2029 the city may still have to stick with the current truck company as engine company approach, that is do-able although not as effective.

Not having the nine firefighters on the job ASAP is significantly worse for all of Manteca.

It is much better than the rubber band snapping when someone is suffering a heart attack at Del Webb, a child is run over by a car in the neighborhoods near Joshua Cowell School, or someone suffering a stroke in Central Manteca.

This column is the opinion of editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Bulletin or 209 Multimedia. He can be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com