The retired Farmington Hills firefighter and a group of others from lower Michigan delivered roughly $400,000 worth of used firefighting equipment to Iron Mountain on Thursday afternoon, to be divided among more than two dozen smaller fire departments in the region.

The Iron Mountain Fire Department is serving as distribution site for the equipment, which drew interest from as far away as Houghton and Gogebic County, said Jeff Friedenstab, the Iron Mountain deputy director of fire services who learned about the downstate program at a recent conference.

While Iron Mountain has a decent budget for their gear, Friedenstab knew of the need in some of the neighboring departments.