The Brookhaven (MS) Board of Aldermen recently approved $18,805 for the purchase of a turnout gear washer extractor and drying cabinet for the city’s fire department, reports dailyleader.com. The apparatus will be located at the department’s Station 2 on North First Street and available for use by every station.

The cost was the lowest bid of the two submitted, and it came from Pellerin Laundry Machinery.

The machines are made specifically to remove carcinogens from the gear, which can absorb smoke, soot, fire suppression foam, and other materials during use.

The washer not only cleans the gear but also eliminates the hazardous materials that would otherwise become trapped in a typical washing machine.

The dryer is a standing cabinet where the turnouts will be hung to dry, rather than a tumble-style clothes dryer.

The Colorado Springs (CO) Fire Department (CSFD) is donating a 75-foot aerial to its sister city in Nuevo Casas Grandes, Mexico, reports krdo.com.

The apparatus went out of commission when CSFD got a new aerial truck about a year ago, but it still works and it will give Nuevo Casas Grandes a new vantage point when fighting fires.

This marks the 10th donation from CSFD to the department in Nuevo Casas Grandes, but the first aerial truck it’s ever donated. Crews from Nuevo Casas Grandes arrived in Colorado Springs on Wednesday night and are training on the truck at CSFD Station 1 before driving it down to Mexico.

Colorado Springs and Nuevo Casas Grandes have been sister cities since 1996. In 2019, firefighters from Nuevos Casas Grandes joined CSFD for a high-angle training session in North Cheyenne Cañon.

Jeffrey McCants, accused of stealing a marked fire vehicle from a Prichard (AL) Fire-Rescue station, was arrested Wednesday, reports foxtv10.com. McCants, who said he stole the apparatus because God told him to, has a criminal record.

Surveillance video shows McCants walking inside Central Station on Turner Road, sliding into the 2009 Crown Victoria, and then slowly backing out of the station. He confessed to the theft as police were taking him to jail. He’s being held at Mobile County Metro Jail on charges of first-degree theft and first-degree burglary.

In 2014, a judge in Bay County, Fl., sentenced him to three years and four months in prison for grand theft auto of a silver 2005 Toyota Tacoma. In addition, authorities charged him with first-degree arson in 2006; that charge was dropped. The jail log also shows several misdemeanor arrests over the years, ranging from criminal mischief to harassing communications to arson.