Everett fire chief shares details of ‘senseless’ fire truck theft

EVERETT — For the first time in the Everett Fire Department’s 133-year history, someone stole one of the department’s fire trucks.

Fire Chief Dave DeMarco wants that to be the last time it ever happens.

In a statement Wednesday during Everett’s City Council meeting, DeMarco went into detail about the circumstances surrounding the unusual and dangerous joyride that made national headlines this week.

Around 10 p.m. on July 18, firefighters arrived at the scene of a medical emergency on the 2900 block of Hoyt Avenue and spent about an hour attending to a patient, a department statement read. The fire truck was parked, blocking the roadway idle with its emergency lights on. Fire agencies across the country often leave vehicles idling to power emergency lights and other accessories on the trucks.

“Fire apparatus are left idling by design,” DeMarco said. “They are essentially a mobile fire station with complex systems, tools and equipment all required to support emergency operations. They require continuous power to do so.”

When the firefighters returned to the street, the 35,000-pound truck was gone. They found a wheel chock, an aluminum block placed under the engine’s tires to prevent it from rolling, flattened. Those aren’t built to prevent an intentional overrun, the department wrote.

After that, dispatchers began to receive 911 calls regarding a fire engine colliding with vehicles.

In all, at least 14 parked cars and trucks were damaged before the individual abandoned the fire engine near the city’s waterfront along Marine View Drive. Nobody was injured.

How was the person able to steal it? It’s unclear, DeMarco said. Driving a fire truck is not as simple as hopping in the cab and turning a key.

“They aren’t equipped with keys, ignition, or a braking system that an untrained person would even have been able to recognize,” he said.

The vehicle was in neutral with the parking brakes applied, a department statement wrote. Somehow, the individual who stole the truck was able to put it in gear, release the brakes and drive over the wheel chock holding it steady.

All that’s known about a potential suspect is that he is male, Everett police wrote in a statement Tuesday.

“We may never know the criminal’s intent, but I’m very confident in our police department and I’m hopeful officers will have an opportunity to discuss this at length with the perpetrator,” DeMarco said.

The department has implemented temporary measures to improve fleet security, DeMarco said, but will not share the measures publicly. In the long term, the department is exploring engineering options to prevent a theft like this from happening again.

But adding any new layers of protection also brings a potentially heightened risk of mechanical failure, DeMarco said.

“These are not utility trucks, they are not delivery vans. They cannot fail,” he said. “So we must be deliberate and careful about how we proceed.”

Everett paid about $600,000 for the fire engine in 2018. Today, that same truck is worth twice as much, the department said.

Some firefighter unions have called for federal antitrust regulators to conduct investigations into the companies that build fire engines, according to Reuters, saying industry consolidation has driven up prices. Companies who build the trucks have instead cited increased demand, supply chain issues and labor shortages as reasons for the price jumps.

It’s unclear if the damaged fire engine can be repaired, the Everett Fire Department wrote Wednesday.

The department had five fire engines in reserves when the theft took place. Now, it’s down to four, but officials said two new engines are set to arrive in just a few weeks, replacing some of the department’s oldest vehicles. Three more new fire trucks are set to arrive by 2028, the department wrote.

“While I can’t explain or apologize for the senseless act of a criminal, I’m still very sorry that this happened,” DeMarco said. “I want to reassure the community that every Everett firefighter is working hard to make sure nothing like this ever happens again.”

Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.