SAN DIEGO --
County officials are mulling the purchase of as many as 50 fire trucks in the wake of the recent firestorm.
A county report showed that fire chiefs around the county reported that hundreds of additional firefighters were available to fight those wildfires but lacked the engines to do so.
"The advantages are clear: Additional firefighting power could be deployed by utilizing existing firefighters without hiring additional ones, and the fleet would be funded in large measure with one-time expenditure and minimal on-going expenses," according to the report.
Officials are expected to order staffers to investigate how to pay for the emergency vehicles. Costs for the fire trucks are expected to be about as low as $15 million or as high as $50 million. Among the funding alternatives be explored will likely be parcel of property taxes, federal grants and alternative sources of local financing.
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