By Gordon Dritschilo
gordon.dritschilo @rutlandherald.com
From air packs in Poultney to air bags in Rutland, federal money is buying new equipment for Vermont fire departments.
Vermont’s congressional delegation announced Federal Emergency Management Agency grants to Vermont’s fire departments totaling more than $2 million this week, though some of the grants had already been announced individually in September.
Poultney got the largest grant in Rutland County, with $136,333 for new air packs.
Poultney Fire Chief Aaron Kerber said the recommended lifespan for air packs is not a specific number of years, but the number of times National Fire Protection Association guidelines have been updated since the air packs were manufactured. He said the NFPA recommends not using air packs more than two updates out of date, and that since the department bought their current packs in 2002, the guidelines have been updated three times.
One of those newer guidelines, he said, has to do with the heat rating on the face pieces. He said the change isn’t so much increasing caution as a reflection of changes in building materials over the years — newer materials burn hotter.
“Hotter and faster, dramatically,” he said. “We were just at the academy on Sunday with the Castleton Fire Department doing some live-fire training and getting a refresher on fire behavior. The older houses, you’ve got 15-20 minutes before the fire reaches its flashover point (when a fire suddenly engulfs a room) … whereas the new materials, a room can reach its flashover point in 5 minutes or less.”
Similarly, the city is replacing extrication gear, some of which is more than 40 years old. Aside from the fact that replacement parts are no longer available for the older gear, city Fire Chief James Larsen said the newer equipment will make it easier for firefighters to get people out of newer cars, which are made of stronger metals than their predecessors.
Larsen said the city has already purchased the gear with the $47,317 FEMA grant.
“It’s all been approved by the Board of Finance because there’s a 5% match,” he said. “We’ll start training on it in November.”
The Vermont Fire Academy in Pittsford got $124,584. Chief of Training Peter Lynch said they were buying personal protective equipment and breathing gear for instructors to use in live fire training, technical rescue equipment for rope operations and water rescue training, hand tools and power rescue saws
“We are very pleased to be awarded this funding and it will help us to be able to continue to offer the most up-to-date training to Vermont’s emergency responders in areas that they have identified to be critical to their mission,” Lynch wrote in an email.
Other grants included $95,595 for Springfield, $162,273 for Burlington and $305,209 for Williston in partnership with Essex Rescue and Colchester Rescue.
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