Greencastle Rescue Hose gets FEMA Assistance to Firefighters Grant - Echo Pilot

Greencastle’s Rescue Hose Co. has a small other fiscal breathing country aft receiving a national assistance for astir a quarter-million dollars to regenerate self-contained breathing apparatus.

The section precocious was awarded an Assistance to Firefighters Grant successful the magnitude of $241,880 for operations and information from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The wealth volition beryllium utilized to regenerate the breathing apparatus that is reaching the extremity of its work life, according to Fire Chief Kevin Barnes.

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“The superior extremity of the Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) is to conscionable the firefighting and exigency effect needs of occurrence departments and non-affiliated exigency aesculapian work organizations,” according to the FEMA website. “Since 2001, AFG has helped firefighters and different archetypal responders get critically needed instrumentality for protecting the nationalist and exigency unit from occurrence and related hazards.”

The wealth volition beryllium utilized to regenerate SCBA instrumentality purchased with a AFG assistance successful 2011, Barnes said. That assistance of $182,875 paid for 36 units, portion the caller assistance volition screen 32.

“Grants are important to us,” Barnes said, noting it is challenging to screen ample expenses retired of pocket. The FEMA assistance astir matches his yearly fund of $250,000 for the occurrence services section of Rescue Hose.

The breathing apparatus is needed let firefighters to run safely anytime they participate a “hazardous oregon unsafe atmosphere” specified arsenic a occurrence oregon a chemic situation, Barnes said.

Barnes said helium is talking with vendors, hopes to spot an bid by the extremity of the twelvemonth and, champion lawsuit scenario, person the caller instrumentality successful work successful mid to precocious 2023.

The boost from FEMA besides provides flexibility to look astatine instrumentality the section different could not afford.

“We person immoderate things successful the queue,” Barnes said, citing replacement of the work serviceman conveyance and caller portable radios. The section besides volition beryllium replacing a occurrence motor wrong the adjacent 18 months.

Shawn Hardy is simply a newsman with Gannett's Franklin County newspapers successful south-central Pennsylvania — the Echo Pilot successful Greencastle, The Record Herald successful Waynesboro and the Public Opinion successful Chambersburg. She has much than 35 years of journalism experience. Reach her astatine shardy@gannett.com