The city's fleet is 18 years old.  Typically fire departments usually replace their engines every ten to fifteen yeras, but the city waited because of the economic downturn.

Bend City Manager Eric King says the council had planned on making this purchase for awhile.

"They spent 2.8 million purchasing six new fire trucks.  The current fleet is 18 years old and by the time they're replaced will be 20 years  old. They've reached the end of their life.  It's something we put in the budget. It was not dependent on the levy that passed. We were planning on doing something, something we needed to do."

Because the buses are so old, they are spending a lot of time being repaired and are often out of use.

The new trucks should arrive in early 2015.  They will be safer for firefighters to use and will have greater water pumping capacity.