Manteca, last year, responded to at least 168 fire calls in Ripon.

That included cases where the only available Ripon Fire engine was tied up on a call and Manteca was a minimum of 10 to 15 minutes away, assuming Manteca’s only available engine is not at the city’s Lathrop Road station next to the Del Webb neighborhood.

And it has gotten to the point where Manteca firefighters have to arrive on scene before their Ripon counterparts can start effectively fighting house fires.

It has led to the total loss of at least one home in a fire that likely could have been less severe.

The same is also true of other fires where the losses were severe due to having to await for a Manteca engine arrive.

It is happening because Ripon Consolidated Fire Department is suffering the crippling effects of inadequate revenue.

It has left the department that is the first-line of help in a 56 square mile area serving 22,000 residents when people suffer heart attacks, are involved in life threatening accidents, or fires with only one engine company.

They can only afford to place three firefighters on a shift.

Based on that, they can’t meet the minimum of two firefighters per engine company to dispatch a second fire engine.

As a result, all three firefighters are assigned to one engine.

Manteca, by contrast, has operated the last 35 years with three-man engine minimums for a more optimum emergency responsive.

Manteca shed the bare minimum staffing of two per engine that Ripon has now in the late 1980s.

A structure fire in Ripon in many cases now means it requires Manteca to show up before any firefighter can enter the building.

The hard-fast federal standard is two firefighters need to be in the outside when a minimum of two firefighters enter a burning building.

Ripon’s decimated budget that has cut into required overhead, also means Manteca often dispatchs a battalion chief to taken control of the incident.

Manteca sources indicated the 168 number of calls they responded to in Ripon may actually have been  closer to 200 last year.

That’s because it appears a number of responses triggered by an automatic aid agreement were not correctly noted as such.

The responses — whether they were 168 or 200 — in some cases do not represent just one engine company from Manteca responding to Ripon.

As many as three Manteca engines have responded to Ripon house fires.

Automatic aid agreement

expires in October 2025

The Ripon Fire District and City of Manteca have what is called an automatic agreement as opposed to a mutual aid agreement.

It is the same arrangement the City of Manteca has with the Lathrop Manteca Fire District.

Automatic aid means the closest available engine to a Ripon incident — whether it is Manteca or Ripon — is automatically dispatched.

That’s opposed to the more prevalent mutual aid system.

One department needs to request the services of another.

That adds what could be minutes to the response and dispatch time after a 9-1-1 call is received as opposed to automatic aid.

And there is always the possibility the request for mutual aid is turned down if the department being asked decides it can’t afford to do so.

Automatic aid agreements are a two-way street that balance out even though it rarely is close to 50-50.

And rarely, if ever, is that happening now.

In recent years, the agreement between Manteca and Ripon Fire has become where basically 100 percent of automatic aid responses in a given year are Manteca to Ripon.

Manteca and Lathrop Manteca Fire, on the other hand are in the 50-50 range.

It is to the point their coverage areas are basically seamless.

Automatic aid is driven by a desire to be good neighbors and to assure both entities have crucial back up when needed.

Back in the 1990s, when the Manteca and Lathrop Manteca Fire automatic aid was getting out of synch, elected leaders in charge of budgeting were concerned about one entity’s taxpayers subsiding those in another jurisdiction.

While the situation was nowhere close to what the Ripon-Manteca agreement has become, it did trigger consolidation talks and other options involving the City of Manteca, what was Manteca-Lathrop  Rural Fire District, the City of Tracy, and the Tracy Rural Fire District

A surge in growth made the call volume more equitable and therefore not financially disadvantageous to one party.

The automatic aid agreement between Manteca and Ripon Fire runs through October 2025.

It also has a 30-day cancellation clause.

In doing their due diligence, Manteca’s elected leaders would likely need to weigh issues such as the additional mileage being put on the city’s engines to essentially cover Ripon as well. New fire engines are now running $1.1 million.

And the new tiller truck that is going into service this fall that would end up responding to Ripon if it is the closest engine has a $1.7 million price tag.

Parcel tax is being

advanced in Ripon

It should be noted  the Tracy Rural and Lathrop Manteca districts were headed toward the path to the situation Ripon Fire finds itself today.

Tracy Rural resolved it by consolidating with the City of Tracy and becoming the South San Joaquin County Fire Authority.

Lathrop Manteca Fire’s financial woes were settled by a one cent sales tax increase approved by City of Lathrop voters. A large share of the annual receipts are diverted to Lathrop Manteca Fire to provide emergency services within the City of Lathrop’s boundaries.

It is against that backdrop that Ripon Fire is pursuing another option — a parcel tax increase.

The district board is expected to authorize the parcel hike ask when they meet Thursday, April 11, at 2 p.m. at the headquarters fire station at 142 South Stockton St., Ripon.

The rate hike, if approved by the majority on property owners, would set the assessment at an estimated:

*$250 a year ($21 a month) for single family homes up to 3,600 square feet.

*$264 a year ($22 a month) for single family homes between 3,601 and 4,526 square feet.

*$278 a year ($23) a month) for single families homes more than 4,526 square feet.

*$1,526 a year for multiple-unit housing with 5 to 10 units.

*$3,220 a year for multiple- unit housing with 21 to 40 units.

*$16,124 a year for multiple-unit housing with more than 100 units.

*$143 for all row crop and orchard agricultural parcels.

The parcel tax hike is tailored to generate funds needed to hire six firefighters to allow the opening of the River Road fire station with an engine company staffed 24/7.

It also will address salary and other issues that are making it difficult to compete for firefighter personnel when compared to nearby jurisdictions.

The starting pay for firefighters in Ripon of $21.23 has led to Ripon Fire being consistently short staffed.

Ripon residents also count on the fire district for advanced life support ambulances.

The department handled 2,000 plus calls in 2023. Of those, about 25 percent occurs at or new the same time.

Again, with one engine it requires the availability of a distant fire engine from a nearby jurisdiction for a timely response.

The lack of a second manned engine at the River Road Fire station that was built in response to City of Ripon’s growth has resulted on response times in 2023 being three minutes longer than they were in 2016.

If the board on April 11 proceeds with authorizing the parcel tax increases vote, ballots will be mailed in late April and May to property owners.

The mailed back ballots will be tabulated in June.

The  current property tax rate was set in 1985.

Efforts to increase it in 2007 and 2018 failed.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com