Stephen Landry
The Gardner Information, Mass.
GARDNER, Mass. — Several area hearth departments, including Gardner, Ashburnham and Westminster, have been awarded point out grant funding for the invest in of new safety devices.
On Jan. 12, Gov. Charlie Baker’s office declared that $5 million in grant funding had been awarded to more than 300 fire departments in the state via the fiscal 2022 Firefighter Safety Tools Grant Plan.
The Gardner (Mass.) Fire Department was the receiver of $11,647. Fireplace Chief Greg Lagoy said the funding will go toward the purchase of a great deal-necessary, updated air flow saws, nozzles and respiratory equipment. (Photo/Gardner Hearth Section)
The Gardner Fire Department was the receiver of $11,647, and Hearth Chief Greg Lagoy said the funding will go towards the obtain of significantly-essential, updated ventilation saws, nozzles and breathing apparatus.
“It’s crucial funding (for the reason that) we want to up grade non-compliant, out-of-day and non-serviceable gear,” Lagoy explained. “The area budgets are so strained that we won’t be able to pay for to acquire all the things we need to have, so grant funding like this — specially from the point out — is required to keep recent with machines.”
The department will use the funding to invest in battery-run air flow saws to replace the types currently applied by firefighters, Lagoy said.
“We have numerous gasoline-driven saws that are over 20 yrs outdated and will need frequent maintenance and are not reliable, so we will be changing those people,” he mentioned, introducing that the division is also planning to convert some of its present-day saws to be battery run. “That’s a new technologies that has sophisticated fairly a little bit in the last number of a long time, so battery-powered equipment do conquer the superior-support need that will come with firefighting equipment.”
The new nozzles will change the department’s recent types, some of which are more than 30 several years aged, Lagoy explained, and some of the present respiration products will be complemented with new, immediate intervention workforce respiration air kits.
“We are likely to maximize the (grant) bucks as a great deal as we can, and we do have a compact sum of income in the community budget, so if we need to have to offset some of these expenditures, we can check out to do that,” he mentioned.
The Ashburnham Fireplace Department was awarded just about $14,000, and Fireplace Chief Robert Plant said the funding will go towards the obtain of devices that will be used on the department’s newly purchased fireplace truck.
“The townspeople have been extremely generous in purchasing a new ladder truck that really should be arriving in the following four to six weeks, so this devices, which is new radios, a new thermal imager and a new fuel meter, will go proper on to that new truck,” Plant stated. “This funding is constantly incredibly welcome and it can be a significant sum of dollars for products that we will need.”
The closing purchase of the new fire motor, a 78-foot ladder truck with a drinking water tank and pump, was permitted by inhabitants at Town Assembly in December, Plant reported.
The $15,356 awarded to the Westminster Fireplace Department will make it possible for the office to observe by way of on its initiative to retain its turnout equipment up to day, according to Chief Kyle Butterfield.
“We’re heading to be using this revenue to finish the National Fireplace Defense Association’s 10-yr specifications for helmets, so we are going to exchange all of our helmets so that all people will be compliant with the 10-yr period that our equipment is fantastic for,” Butterfield stated.
The funding will also be applied to make the department’s hose hundreds extra successful, which include the addition of reduced-tension hoses and nozzles, which will be less difficult to use by firefighters in situations the place there are less crew members readily available to perform, he mentioned.
The Hubbardston Fireplace Department was awarded $11,850 in funding, although the Templeton Fire Department is established to get $15,144, in accordance to officials. The Winchendon Fire Department was awarded $18,680.
Hearth departments in the state were able to apply the program to far more than 100 distinct sorts of suitable protection tools, together with personal protecting apparel, equipment washers and dryers, thermal imaging cameras, assorted hand resources and extrication devices, communications assets, hazardous fuel meters, and health machines.
“Our communities and households count on firefighters in tricky and dangerous moments, Baker explained in a push release. “This application is an possibility to present our deep appreciation for their get the job done by guaranteeing they have the tools they have to have to remain secure and healthy.”
In several conditions, the purchase of the new equipment will help departments attain compliance with Occupational Safety and Wellbeing Administration or National Fire Safety Association safety requirements.
“The toll that occupational cancer has taken on the fireplace support is regrettably immense,” explained Secretary of General public Safety and Security Terrence Reidy. “We generally see and hear about heroic rescues in the encounter of obvious and frustrating threat, but the threats firefighters confront go perfectly beyond all those occasions. I am thrilled that we can offer so several fire departments with this funding for gear that will lower firefighters’ prolonged-term publicity to most cancers-triggering materials they come across every single day at function.”
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