Wayne Township Fire & Rescue officials recently shared their department’s success with upgrading its Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA), recordherald.com reported. They have upgraded 12 SCBAs to the MSA G1 models with integrated thermal imaging and Bluetooth technology.

The purchases were made possible using the CARES Act, ARPA funds, Ohio Fire Marshal equipment grant, donations, and funds raised from their annual fish fry, the report said.

Total items purchased include:

– 12 MSA G1 SCBA

– 35 MSA 4500psi air bottles

– 15 MSA G1 masks

– 12 backup batteries

– Four hard cases

– One Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag writer

– 16 Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags

– 15 SCBA mask bags

– 35-bottle quick connects

The St. Lewis mayor said with the community’s only fire truck out of service, they need new firefighting equipment, CBC.ca reported.

In emergencies, the town attaches a water pump to a volunteer’s truck, but the old truck doesn’t work anymore, the mayor said in the report.

A woman in the Labrador community of St. Lewis spoke up recently about the lack of fire services after nothing could be done to stop her son’s shed from burning down earlier this month, the report said. When the shed caught fire a call was made to the volunteer fire department, but was informed that they couldn’t do anything due to the fire truck being broke down and the pump being frozen, the report said.

Regarding the shed fire, the mayor said the fire brigade did show up and focused on preventing the fire from spreading to other buildings nearby, the report said.

The mayor said the town is working to move into a new fire house soon and is meeting in the next couple of weeks to ask for a new fire truck, according to the report.

Two new fire pumpers were delivered to the Troy-Woodland and Algoma Fire Departments last week, djournal.com reported.

Through the rotation program two trucks will be purchased each year and rotated into the fire departments where needed, a fire official said in the report. The 20-year life span on the current trucks will be expiring in six years, according to the report.

Both Troy Woodland and Algoma fire departments were founded in 1984 and are an all volunteer department.

Albuquerque Fire Rescue is working toward the biggest public safety expansion the city has seen in decades, krqe.com reported. 

The city said it already acquired funding to build a new fire station in the fastest growing part of the city with plans to break ground on a new station in southwest Albuquerque near 98th and Blake, the report said.

The project is still in the planning phase. The city is looking at expanding its public safety presence in the area, starting with Albuquerque Fire Rescue Station 23.

The city said it already has the money for the fire station and expects to break ground by the end of summer, according to the report.

The city hopes the state will kick in $10 million to complete the rest of the public safety complex. AFR also wants to add two more fire stations over the next decade; one in the northwest part of the city, and the other at Mesa del Sol, the report said.