For the third quarter, we delivered sales of nearly $1.6 billion, adjusted earnings per share of $1.29, and our consolidated backlog is up nearly 6% versus the prior year, as we controlled what we can control, while responding quickly to challenges outside of our control.
We also successfully navigated through over 200 supplier shutdowns early in the quarter to continue production without any major supplier induced line stoppages.
Our Access Equipment segment has experienced the negative impacts of the current business landscape more intensively than any other segment in our company with year-over-year revenues down more than 60% in the quarter.
Despite these challenges, our team rallied quickly with aggressive steps to reduce production at the factories and to lower our costs, resulting in solid, adjusted decremental margins of just under 20% and an adjusted operating income margin of 8.4%.
We announced the closure of our Medias, Romania facility at the end of June, which will occur over the next 12 months.
Our defense backlog remains solid at nearly $3.3 billion, up over 15% from the prior year which provides good visibility, especially given the current environment where the pandemic has limited visibility across many industries.
Fire & Emergency delivered a strong quarter with a 15.7% adjusted operating income margin.
Before I leave this segment, I wanted to mention the ramp-up of our new front discharge concrete mixer, the S Series 2.0 complete with industry-leading connectivity and productivity technologies.
However, strong execution by our teams, combined with rapid implementation of cost reduction actions allowed us to effectively manage the business and deliver solid adjusted consolidated decremental margins of 15.9% for the quarter on a significant decrease in year-over-year sales.
Consolidated net sales for the quarter were $1.6 billion, down 33.9% from the prior year quarter, a significant decrease in access equipment sales and, to a lesser extent, decreases in fire & emergency and commercial sales were the primary drivers of the lower consolidated sales, offset in part by higher defense sales.
Consolidated adjusted operating income for the third quarter was $128.8 million or 8.1% of sales compared to $257.8 million or 10.8% of sales in the prior year quarter.
Adjusted earnings per share for the quarter was $1.29 compared to earnings per share of $2.72 in the third quarter of 2019.
Third quarter results benefited by $0.03 per share from share repurchases completed in the prior 12 months.
Last quarter, we announced decisive actions to reduce pre-tax cost by $80 million to $100 million for the year in response to the uncertainties caused by COVID-19.
As a result of the outstanding focus by our teams, we now expect these temporary cost reduction measures to exceed $100 million in fiscal 2020.
As John discussed, we have also announced permanent restructuring actions in our access equipment and commercial segments, which are expected to yield combined annualized cost savings of $30 million to $35 million once complete.
Our balance sheet remains strong with available liquidity of approximately $1.1 billion, consisting of cash of approximately $300 million and availability under our revolving line of credit of approximately $800 million at the end of the quarter.
On the second quarter earnings call, we discussed our target of achieving mid-20% adjusted decremental margins, both on a consolidated basis and within the access equipment segment for the year.
Nonetheless, we expect to achieve the targeted mid-20% adjusted decremental margins, both in the fourth quarter and for the full year on a consolidated basis.

Summary:
For the third quarter, we delivered sales of nearly $1.6 billion, adjusted earnings per share of $1.29, and our consolidated backlog is up nearly 6% versus the prior year, as we controlled what we can control, while responding quickly to challenges outside of our control.
Adjusted earnings per share for the quarter was $1.29 compared to earnings per share of $2.72 in the third quarter of 2019.