Two days after a consuming blaze gutted a Soap Lake church, a local fire chief is confident about the nature of the fire. Grant County Fire District 7 Chief Kirk Sheppard is convinced that Saturday evening’s fire at the House of Prayer Slavic Baptist Church was an “accident,” and was not arson. Sheppard says the point of origin of the blaze was in the kitchen near the back of the building.
- PUB DATE: 4/5/2021 8:33:27 PM - SOURCE: iFiber One News Radio

Raynham Fire Department is one of nearly 300 fire departments across the state to have been awarded a grant for fire equipment, reports Wicked Local.

The grants are awarded via the Department of Fire Services Fiscal Year 2021 Firefighter Safety Equipment Grant Program. The $4 million awarded to departments statewide is part of a $25 million bond bill filed by the Baker-Polito Administration to support firefighter health and safety over the next five years.

The $10,900 grant awarded to the Raynham Fire Department will be used to purchase a gear dryer to clean Raynham firefighters’ personal protective equipment.

Fire departments in Massachusetts were able to apply to this program for 114 different types of eligible equipment, including personal protective clothing, gear washers and dryers, thermal imaging cameras, assorted hand tools and extrication equipment, communications resources, hazardous gas meters, fitness equipment and more.

The city of Brentwood will host a virtual meeting for residents to learn more about its new fire station, reports Community Impact.

The city purchased the land in 2018 and is expected to begin construction later this year. A contract for design and construction services was approved earlier this year.

A presentation for the meeting can be viewed here.

The Greenfield Fire Department is currently in a temporary fire station and hoping to move in new quarters in early Summer but that date has been adjusted to August, reports Greenfield Recorder.

The City Council approved $17.3 million for both the temporary and new fire stations, of which $1.77 million is for the temporary station. The living quarters and offices are contracted at $404,114, and the apparatus bays are contracted at just over $1 million.

The city is expecting to save money through the work being done by Public Works, IT and Central Maintenance departments.

Vanguard Modular Building Systems of Danvers will deliver the living quarters and office space around May 20, while New England Builders of Methuen will deliver the apparatus bays on May 31.

The current fire station must be razed to make room to build the city’s new library.

The Prosser community is getting ready to honor a fallen volunteer firefighter. Firefighter Luis Lopez died on March 27th, 2021 due to complications from COVID-19. Firefighter Lopez spent more than 12 years as a Volunteer Firefighter for the agency and left the department in 2018, when he moved to the Connell area with his new wife.
- PUB DATE: 4/5/2021 4:12:06 PM - SOURCE: KIMA-TV CBS/CW+ 29 Yakima