Fire Chief Matt Kinley leads a total of 20 fire stations in Seminole County. Kinley said it’s a nationwide production delay that has worsened due to the pandemic.

“There’s so many orders, supply chain issues, manufacturing issues, being able to get employees,” said Kinley.

Kinley said most of the lead time is due to waiting on chassis from manufacturers.

“We are competing with nonpublic safety entities that are over the road trucking, we use the same types of chassis and there’s really only a small percentage that are mandatory allocated to public safety, so we end up getting in line with everyone else to get these chassis so we can get these trucks on the road,” said Kinley.

He said he remembers on average ambulances, fire trucks and tower trucks taking one year to deliver.

He said that’s changed and increased to an average of two to three and a half years for delivery.

“It does concern me, and it has concerned me,” he said. “We saw this coming and it was confirmed by our manufacturers for the trucks as its been increasing over this time, so we came up with the idea because we knew when trucks were going to need to be replaced to order them early.”

Kinley is looking to stay ahead when it comes to the current supply chain issues causing a delay in the production of emergency vehicles nationwide.

Fire officials said it created a backlog of orders for manufacturers and extended the delivery time. Kinley said the Seminole County Board of Commissioners recently allowed the department, for the second time, to pull millions in reserve money to buy fire trucks early.

The Seminole County Fire Department responds to about $51,000 calls every year, including EMS and fire calls.

Chief Kinley said they recently ordered two engines, three rescues and a squad truck.

City of Orlando Fire Department officials said they’re currently forecasting a two to three-year turnaround time from ordering fire trucks to delivery.

Orlando FD recently started ordering gasoline-powered ambulances, since gasoline models are more readily available instead of the diesel versions.

Spectrum News also checked in with St. Cloud Fire Rescue.

Officials said they recently got a new fire truck, a $700,000 investment for public safety.

Fire Chief Jason Miller told council members recently the waiting list for ordering a new custom-built fire engine is at least three years, and the council agreed to waive the normal procurement process, enabling the agency to buy in, and bid more quickly, to replace older fire engine due to production shortages.