TEXAS \u2014 Rising fuel costs are affecting more than drivers at the pump. Some Texas fire departments say higher diesel prices are creating new budget challenges as they work to keep emergency vehicles on the road while maintaining the same level of service.<\/p>\n
In Flower Mound, Fire Chief Paul Henley said the department relies on diesel-powered fire engines and other heavy apparatus to respond to emergencies every day.<\/p>\n
\u201cCosts are going up, and if they continue to go up with what\u2019s going on in the world, we have to be aware of that and forecast that,\u201d Henley said.<\/p>\n
Alex Jacquez, the senior vice president of policy and advocacy at Groundwork Collaborative, said global events have contributed to higher diesel prices in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe price of diesel has increased more than a dollar on average since before the Iran war,\u201d Jacquez said. \u201cFor fire trucks, if you\u2019re paying a dollar more per gallon in diesel, that adds up. These trucks only get about 8 to 12 miles per gallon, they\u2019re constantly filling them up, and that\u2019s going to affect costs elsewhere when you see these energy spikes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Henley said Flower Mound purchases fuel in bulk and budgets for those expenses each year, but rising diesel costs still put additional pressure on the town\u2019s finances.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a significant cost,\u201d Henley said. \u201cIn our budget this year, we\u2019re about 14% up.\u201d<\/p>\n
To help offset higher operating costs, the department is looking for ways to make training more efficient without reducing emergency readiness. Henley said firefighters are traveling to training exercises together and using fewer vehicles when possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have varying strategies on how to reduce training and how we can make it more efficient,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Fleet officials also say it\u2019s not just diesel they\u2019re monitoring. Other products tied to vehicle operations \u2014 including lubricants, diesel exhaust fluid and tires \u2014 can also become more expensive when fuel prices increase.<\/p>\n
Despite the added financial pressure, Henley said residents should not expect any changes in emergency response.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to make sure emergency services do not suffer,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you call the police department or the fire department, we\u2019re going to be there with enough personnel to do what we have to do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TEXAS \u2014 Rising fuel costs are affecting more than drivers at the pump. Some Texas fire departments say…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365563,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3564,132,134,133,3565,1570,102,138,2349,223,1571,82,27,1569,835],"class_list":["post-365562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-app-community","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-community-news","tag-ctv","tag-dallas","tag-el-paso","tag-money","tag-news","tag-nicolette-perdomo","tag-san-antonio","tag-texas","tag-texas-what-you-need-to-know","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}