American LaFrance to open centers to repair its firetrucks that are damaged, old

Firetrucks roll out of American LaFrance’s Summerville factory in pristine condition and straight into a world of disasters and emergencies.

The red fire engines may crash in brutal wrecks while responding to calls or get scorched from a blaze’s searing heat. Some simply wear down with time.

The company now has a new plan to bring those beat-up vehicles back to the factory.

American LaFrance said Wednesday that it will open service centers at its plants in Summerville and Ephrata, Pa. An existing location in Los Angeles already performs maintenance on fire trucks.

Spokesman Richard Ball said the company has done some repair work in the past but will now market those services to customers and dedicate a full-time staff to the effort.

The work could be attractive to cash-strapped fire departments that can’t afford new trucks and need to keep using their aging vehicles.

“When you have a dip in the economy, it’s going to affect the tax base a year later,” Ball said of the fiscal situation facing departments across the country. “We saw that coming.”

American LaFrance will open eight service bays in about 15,000 square feet of space at its 520,000-square-foot manufacturing building off Jedburg Road near Interstate 26.

The plant also makes a variety of other utility service vehicles, such as garbage trucks, aircraft refuelers and concrete pumpers.

Employment at the four-worker service center in Summerville could grow with additional work, and it could draw upon help from engineers who are working to build the new vehicles in the neighboring space.

The new venture could help revive work at the factory, which is off from its 2006 peak when the company turned out 500 trucks and 850 support trucks with about 1,300 workers across the country.

Production is now a fraction of that amount, though Ball wouldn’t give specific numbers or disclose how many employees now work at the factory.

Two years after its busiest period, American LaFrance leaders filed for bankruptcy protection, listing more than $200 million in debts owed to more than 1,000 creditors.

The company blamed the filing on changeover problems that occurred after it formally cut ties with former owner Freightliner in 2005, as well as a lull in orders. It emerged from bankruptcy several months later.

More recently the company has been shuffling its top management. Torben von Staden, American LaFrance’s new chief executive officer, took his post in July, and the manufacturer continues to hire other high-level employees.

Owned by New York investment firm Patriarch Partners, the company’s roots date to 1832.