Scottsdale has joined with seven other Arizona cities and towns suing firetruck manufacturers from around the country, accusing them of monopolizing the industry and killing off any competition.
The suit claims five firetruck manufacturers as well as the Fire Apparatus Manufacturers’ Association and the private equity firm American Industrial Partners have sought to choke off competition in the market through a series of mergers and acquisitions for more than a decade and then hiked prices more than 100%.
Scottsdale’s complaint quotes Edward Kelly, general president of the International Association of Fire Fighters as saying, “In hindsight (the pandemic) was masking what ends up being a main driver of higher costs and lag times in production: the monopolizing of firetruck and ambulance manufacturing in the United States.”
