Posts Tagged Department of Homeland Security Assistance to Firefighters Grant

Mattoon Fire Department news

Excerpts from jg-tc.com:

The Mattoon Fire Department recently received a $200,000 federal grant that will enable it to replace all 30 of the aging air tank sets for the department’s firefighters. The Federal Emergency Management Agency awarded this grant through the Assistant to Firefighters program, and the grant was matched by $10,000 in city funding.

The grant funding arrived as one third of the department’s bottles are scheduled to retire at the beginning of 2019 and another third are set to expire at the beginning of 2020. Each new set of grant funded equipment will include two bottles, a harness, and a face mask. One feature of the new equipment will be a warning signal that indicates when 33 percent of the air supply is left, instead of the current signal at 25 percent.

In other matters, the department recently purchased a washing machine and a clothes drying cabinet for turnout gear with the help of a $15,700 small equipment grant from the Illinois State Fire Marshal’s Office. They installed the new cleaning equipment this week at the fire station annex building behind city hall.

The new equipment will enable firefighters to clean their own turnout gear on site without having to send it to a cleaning service. The washing machine can clean two sets of gear at a time.

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New mobile command post for Rockford

Excerpts from rrstar.com:

The Rockford City Council on Tuesday approved the purchase of a $374,500 mobile command vehicle that will be shared by the fire and police departments.

A large trailer, it will serve as a training and incident command post for the fire department when responding to large-scale emergencies or for training exercises. Police could use it during critical incidents or SWAT team deployments. It could be a shared command space in cases of a natural disaster or mass casualty incident, Rockford Fire Division Chief Matthew Knott said.

The vehicle is being bought from Lynch Diversified Vehicles of Burlington, Wisconsin. Funding is coming from a $250,000 Assistance to Firefighters grant, $25,000 from the fire department operations budget, and $100,000 from the police operating budget.

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Carpentersville Fire Department news

Excerpts from the ChicagoTribune.com:

Grant funding has allowed Carpentersville firefighters to acquire new air packs and masks.

More than a year ago, the Carpentersville Fire Department learned it had secured funding through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s FEMA Assistance to Firefighters grant program to replace their old breathing apparatus, which were set to be retired next year.

Fire Chief John-Paul Schilling said at the village board meeting Tuesday that funding had been received. A total of $262,300, which included the village’s required 10 percent match, was used to purchase 36 new air packs as well as masks that contain a built-in thermal imaging camera.  

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La Grange Fire Department news

Excerpts from the ChicagoTribune.com:

The fire departments in La Grange, Western Springs and La Grange Park are moving forward the purchase of new portable radios.

The La Grange Village Board on Monday approved spending the grant money to purchase 75 portable radios, 75 lapel microphones, 31 desk charging units, 44 DC charging units, 19 batteries and programming costs.

The three communities were awarded a $309,000 Department of Homeland Security Assistance to Firefighters Grant to help with the purchase.

Village mananger Andrianna Peterson said the La Grange Fire Department acted as the applicant on behalf of all of the communities. Each community is required to kick in 10 percent of the cost as a local share.

The Assistance to Firefighters Grant program provides federal funds to fire departments and emergency medical service organizations in order to improve response capabilities.

Gay said his department’s radios are between eight and 20 years old. He said the older equipment will be considered reserve or spare equipment until it is obsolete or damaged beyond repair.

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