Van Buren (ME) Fire Department’s station, built in 1972, has some deficiencies and safety concerns, enough so the town is looking for grant money to replace it, according to a report published by the Fiddlehead Focus.

The station is a cinderblock structure with trucks parked above meeting areas and offices, according to the published report, which added the floor is sinking and needs repairs. It is also leaking and not big enough to house the department’s fleet, the paper also reported.

Town and fire department officials are looking for a site for the new fire station which they hope to fund with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grant money, according to the newspaper.

If federal money becomes available, Van Buren officials hope to erect a pre-fabricated building on a parcel of land adjacent to the town offices, one that is large enough with big bay doors to accommodate all the apparatus as well as a large training trailer, the paper said.

Progress is being made on the new fire station in Ligonier (IN) according to a report published by The News Sun.

The new station will have a training tower, fitness room, lifts for apparatus maintenance in the bays and a separate room for turnout gear as well as a decontamination area, according to the newspaper.

Other features include 14-foot square doors, living quarters, a kitchen, dining area, and a training room on the second floor, according to the paper.

The station is scheduled to open this fall with a dedication ceremony to follow, the paper reported.

A fire apparatus with a heart-lung bypass machine in it will soon be in service with the Edina (MN) Fire Department, in conjunction with the University of Minnesota, according to a report published by the Sun Current.

The unique truck will specialize in treating cardiac arrests and will be equipped with an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine, or ECMO, to create a heart-lung bypass providing time to find the root cause of the arrest, according to the report. Earlier this month the Edina City Council agreed to the university/fire department partnership, the paper reported. The program received funding through the Minnesota Mobile Resuscitation Consortium, the paper reported.

The truck will have an ECMO machine, a c-arm fluoroscopy imaging scanner and cameras broadcasting several angles of the patient to a large television screen and technology to allow a cardiologist to be on call through virtual reality, the paper reported.

Two Edina firefighter-paramedics will staff the truck, which will be houses at a fire station, with two or three experts as well, the paper reported, adding that the firefighters will be trained on the truck and the ECMO equipment over the next few months with the goal of having it in service by the end of the year.

McCord’s Crossroads (AL) Volunteer Fire Department used grant money to buy a second-hand fire truck and build an addition on to its fire station, according to a report published by The Gadsden Times.

The newspaper reported the department got a loan and a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, $26,600 in the form of a grant and $43,900 as a loan to be repaid within 10 years.

The new addition to the fleet is a low-mileage HME engine sold by a dealer in Dallas (GA), according to the newspaper, that also reported the new truck as more storage and plenty of space for extrication tools for crashes which the department responds to often.

The addition to the fire station includes a large, commercial kitchen, and administrative office, and living quarters for the members of the night-duty crew which volunteers sign up to do making night coverage possible for about 50 percent of each month, according to the newspaper.

The station also has a training area that is often used by families and organizations for special events, the newspaper reported.