Someone having a medical emergency on Main Street in Ripon in 2025 when the Ripon Consolidated Fire District’s only staffed engine company was on another emergency call typically waited 14 minutes for a dispatched engine crew to arrive from either Manteca or Escalon.

Fire Chief Eric DeHart shared with the Ripon City Council Tuesday that there were 986 such concurrent calls in 2025.

That meant if the department’s engine company was unable to respond from the call they were on, either Manteca or Escalon responded.

That is what turned what would normally be four to five minutes for an in-station crew to respond to an emergency call — once it has been dispatched — into a 14-minute average response time.

DeHart shared response data and answered questions on behalf of the district that is planning a Proposition 218 parcel tax election.

The board is in the process of fine tuning what specifically they will be asking parcel owners to consider.

The tentative goal is to mail out ballots by the end of May or early June with voting to end on Aug. 13, the date of a board meeting.

DeHart said it was fortunate that none of the concurrent calls involved a cardiac arrest, but given most of the departments calls for service are medical emergencies, the delay in response time can be critical to the best possible outcomes for patients.

The primary goal is to be able to staff the fire station that was completed in 2014 at North Ripon Road and River Road.

DeHart shared that he has been told by some that the decision by the district back then to build the station was “stupid” given the district lacked the funding to staff.

While the station was built more than a decade before DeHart joined the district, he looked at it from a different angle.

He noted the district was offered funding at the time that was either “use it or lose it” to build the station.

It was built for $1.8 million, of which $500,000 came from local sources.

DeHart noted fire stations today — such as the sixth one that Manteca is preparing to build — cost between $7 million and $8 million due to construction inflation which is even harsher for public safety buildings such as police stations, fire stations, and hospitals mandated by the state to meet more stringent seismic standards.

The fire chief said there is clearly a need for the station.
DeHart called it a smart move, since the district would have to come up with $8 million in local funds to build such a station today.

Several council members noted that the need for a second fire engine company available 24/7 isn’t being driven by growth, but rather an aging population.

DeHart said in recent years an average of 21 housing permits for new homes have been issued in the City of Ripon.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com