They're accustomed to responding to calls for help, but now the Nashville Fire Department needs help of its own --- more funding.
With the city's growing population comes more emergency calls to respond to, and that's placing more vehicles in the repair shop.
Mechanics with the Office of Fleet Management (OFM) work daily to reduce the number of fire trucks on a repair list.
A vehicle repair report from June 20 shown to NewsChannel 5 showed 25 percent of vehicles had some sort of repair. The number of repairs changes daily.
In a released statement, a Nashville Fire department logistics spokesperson said "without adequate funding for the Office of Fleet Management to meet these ever increasing demands, I fear we may jeopardize our ability to provide lifesaving and life altering service at our current level."
The spokesperson said the Fire Department's Command Staff managed handling the demands well by making sure stations have enough vehicles ready to respond to calls.
Mark Young, president of the International Association of Firefighters Union, said funding will help.
"The city needs to give General Services the funds to purchase the equipment. That’s it in a nutshell," Young said.
The fire department operates with 51 frontline fire trucks and fire engines and 18 reserved fire trucks and fire engines.
A frontline vehicle has less mileage. A reserved vehicle can respond to calls safely although it has reached its limit.
"The thing is our reserves are way worn out. They are way past where they should be to be on the street," Young said.
By the end of 2018, the fire department expects to add two more ladder trucks to its fleet.
