CHARLESTON, WV (WOWK) – First responders are running into a problem they haven’t had to deal with when it comes to equipment. Supply chain issues are making the wait time longer than usual.
The City of Charleston is planning ahead by ordering new trucks now since trucks can come in around 18-24 months instead of 12 due to the pandemic. However, city manager Jonathan Storage says fire departments have spares in case one of the trucks is out of commission.
South Charleston Fire Chief Virgil White says maintaining trucks during this time can be difficult with supply chain issues.
“We’ve had issues with maintenance on some of the apparatuses that they just couldn’t get the parts in, we’ve had to wait an extra-long time and if you don’t have spare apparatuses to use or somewhere you can borrow an apparatus then that puts you down one piece of equipment,” White said.
The City of Charleston is looking to get a ladder truck around $1.7 million dollars and a pumper truck around $800,000 dollars. To help with the cost, Charleston is seeking federal grant money through FEMA.
