Captain (Ret.) Kirk McKinzie is a 37-year fire service veteran and president of McKinzie SMART Technologies.
Fire departments are among the most visible services a city provides — and among the least modernized.
City leaders are often surprised to learn how much of fire department operations still run on periodic, paper-based equipment checks. When a pump fails or a tool is under-maintained, the gap isn't discovered until the moment it's needed most. This has real consequences for fire departments and the people they protect. A system failure or tool that isn't ready when needed can determine the difference between a family returning to their home and one that doesn't.
Across the country, fire departments are also navigating long wait times and rising costs for new apparatus and replacement parts, forcing many to extend the life of aging fleets. The National Fire Protection Association’s most recent estimates found that roughly 49% of all fire department engines and pumpers in the U.S. are at least 15 years old — the age at which the organization recommends engines be moved to reserve status. Aging equipment often translates to higher maintenance costs, more downtime and lower operational reliability. When a vehicle is pulled from the line for unscheduled repairs, staffing must be reshuffled, district coverage adjusted and mutual aid called in — all of which add cost and slow response.
While departments struggle with aging equipment disruptions, the demands on their fleets have intensified. Synthetic furniture and room contents, which are much more common today, burn far more quickly than rooms with natural materials. In one study, a room with natural furnishings took an average of 30 minutes to reach flashover conditions — the moment when all combustible material in a room simultaneously ignites — while synthetic furnishings reached that point in under five. When small flames reach flashover in three to five minutes, every second of response time matters more than it used to.
When a firefighter enters a structure, the last thing they should be managing is doubt about whether their equipment will perform. Connected fleet systems linking pumps, waterflow systems, tools and operational data into a unified ecosystem give departments continuous visibility into the condition of their equipment, so problems are caught at the station rather than on the scene.
The benefits extend beyond the firehouse. Well-maintained fleets with documented readiness records can contribute to stronger Insurance Services Office ratings, which can affect insurance costs for homeowners and businesses. Better data also gives cities a way to demonstrate their readiness to insurers and residents rather than relying on assurances alone.
Fire departments are projected to see roughly 27,000 job openings per year through the end of this decade as a generation of experienced firefighters retires. Smarter systems can’t replace those people. But they do extend the effectiveness of the teams that remain, reducing the administrative and diagnostic burden so firefighters can focus on what they trained for.
How to rethink emergency response technology
Cities that have invested in smart infrastructure in other domains understand its value. Sensors on water mains catch failures before they become crises. Traffic management systems reduce response times for emergency services. The same principle applies to fire apparatus, and the cost math points in the same direction. Emergency equipment that fails is not only costly to repair, it carries potential liability. And system failure means extended periods of downtime where a fleet is not operating at its top capacity. Proactive investment in readiness is cheaper, safer and more effective than reactive repair.
Making that shift requires cities to change not just what they buy, but how they budget for it. Today, many cities treat fire stations and apparatus as long-term infrastructure, while much of the technology that keeps them operating safely and effectively is funded through annual operating budgets. That leaves technology investments vulnerable to changing priorities and budget cycles — and can make fire leaders reluctant to adopt systems they may not be able to sustain.
Cities should instead create durable funding structures for critical emergency-response technology, treating connected equipment and data systems more like other essential infrastructure or utilities. Chattanooga, Tennessee, offers one model for how cities can rethink traditional categories. In 2010, the city began offering high-speed internet through its municipally owned electric utility, treating connectivity as essential infrastructure rather than leaving it solely to private-sector service providers. The investment has since generated $5.3 billion in community benefit in combination with the fiber optic network.
Emergency response technology deserves the same long-term thinking. City leaders can begin by identifying the technologies essential to maintaining operational readiness, moving those investments out of discretionary year-to-year spending where possible and establishing dedicated funding for their maintenance, upgrades and replacement. Procurement and capital planning should account for the full lifecycle of these systems rather than treating technology as a one-time purchase or an optional add-on to physical equipment.
Emergency response has always been treated as a service cities provide. It should instead be treated as infrastructure cities maintain. That means funding the technology behind modern emergency response with the same continuity and long-term planning cities apply to roads, water systems and other essential infrastructure. The communities that make that shift will see the return in safer outcomes, more predictable costs and systems that work before they’re ever tested.
