San Diego County is hauling a private equity firm and a major fire truck maker into federal court, accusing them of squeezing the market for emergency rigs, driving up prices and slowing deliveries so much that some local fire engines are still in service long after they should have retired. County officials say the consolidation has left departments waiting years for replacements and forced them to either delay maintenance or roll older trucks back into the field.
What the county alleges
The federal complaint names private equity firm American Industrial Partners and Oshkosh Corporation, which owns Pierce Manufacturing, among the defendants. County lawyers say the companies bought up smaller builders and thinned out competition for chassis and replacement parts. According to the filing, that consolidation has more than doubled prices compared with earlier levels and stretched delivery times by roughly one to four years, making it far tougher to cycle out aging rigs.
The county says its fire department now serves 42 communities and runs about 75 trucks, several of them already past their recommended service life, as reported by Times of San Diego.
Part of a growing wave
San Diego is not charging into this fight alone. The case drops into a growing pile of municipal antitrust lawsuits aimed at apparatus manufacturers and their financial backers.
Los Angeles County filed its own complaint in February against American Industrial Partners and several manufacturers, asking a federal court for restitution and orders to unwind mergers that county leaders say choked competition, according to a Los Angeles County press release…