The Atlanta Fire Rescue Department has finalized a purchase order for 11 new fire apparatus to update its fleet, following a five-year gap in acquisitions that began in 2019.
The department will receive eight pumpers and three tractor-drawn aerials (TDAs) from Spartan Emergency Response. The total cost of the vehicles exceeds $17 million, with each pumper priced at approximately $1.3 million and each TDA at $2.3 million, according to Capt. Justin Turner, the department’s apparatus committee chair.
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Turner said the new vehicles are custom-built to meet the city’s specific needs, including low hosebed configurations and low crosslay designs to improve firefighter efficiency.
“Both the pumpers and TDAs are severe duty and custom spec for the city of Atlanta,” Turner says.
The purchase order was approved in February 2025, and preconstruction meetings will begin within 30 days. Each style of apparatus will have its own preconstruction session. Industry-wide delays mean it could take up to two years for all the vehicles to be delivered.
“Within the next 30 days, we’ll have a preconstruction meeting for each of them—separate preconstruction meetings for each style,” Turner says. “After that, the build time will begin. The industry standard right now is almost two years.”
The department made the purchase to replace aging vehicles in its fleet. Turner said the average age of the department’s current fleet is about 10 years, with some vehicles older. A reliable replacement plan is being developed but is not yet finalized.
Turner says many of the rigs are from 2015. “So we’re at the 10-year mark now,” he says. “We still need more new ones. We haven’t purchased anything from 2019 until 2022. Before that, we were purchasing pretty regularly from 2013 until 2019 every year.”
Atlanta is working to quickly bolster its fire fleet after years of trucks being out of service and an audit that found one third of the city’s fire fleet is beyond its life cycle.
Atlanta City Council members approved the nearly $18 million purchase of 11 new vehicles—including three ladder trucks—last year as part of an ongoing effort to address the fire department’s dire equipment shortage.
Elected officials began raising concerns last year after a series of severe fires across the city highlighted the truck issues. The audit found that on a typical day in 2022 or 2023, anywhere from two to 20 engines and ladder trucks were out of commission due to mechanical issues, and stations were sharing trucks to accommodate needs across the city.
The city is currently waiting on more than 20 vehicles already ordered from manufacturers. Atlanta Fire Chief Rod Smith recently told council members that it could take up to 24 to 36 months to receive all the vehicles.
“The purchase order has just been approved, and this batch of 11 is separate from the five pumpers, one TDA, and one hybrid truck we have in production right now,” Turner says. “We’re still working on a long-term replacement plan. The fire chief and (Atlanta’s fleet division) are working on it together, but there’s no set timeline for when it will be done.”
Final inspections for some previously ordered vehicles, including a custom pumper and a TDA ordered in 2022, are expected to take place by the end of this month. Those vehicles are being built at Spartan’s aerial manufacturing facility in Ephrata, Pennsylvania.
“We should be there doing a final inspection by the end of this month,” Turner says. “That TDA was ordered in 2022, and we’ll have more pictures of the new trucks as we go through the process.”
Turner said he expects to provide images of the new vehicles following the inspection process.
“We have a mayor and a fire chief now who are super supportive and in the direction that we’re moving,” Turner says. “We’re working to provide the best public safety possible for the city of Atlanta.”
Brandi Makuski has been a journalist in Portage County, Wisconsin, since 2004, and currently operates the Point/Plover Metro Wire. She maintains strong relationships with local police and fire/EMS agencies, and advocates training journalists to better cover emergency scenes and improving communication between emergency workers and the press.
