"We care about those who put themselves in harm's way for our benefit, especially our fire fighters and emergency services personnel," said Reed. "These individuals devote their lives to protecting us and it is only right we help provide the staff they need to keep themselves safe in that process."

The City of Ithaca Fire Department will receive the money as part of the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant program.  The SAFER program is designed to help local fire departments maintain round the clock staffing. The grant is given directly to the department to increase the number of fire fighters on staff, or to rehire fire fighters who were laid-off for economic reasons.

The new equipment includes three hydraulic cutters and a hydraulic spreader and is worth $30,327. “With these tools, we can now save lives quicker, more safely, and it’s a huge benefit to anyone and everyone. The fact that it costed taxpayers absolutely nothing . . . is a huge blessing for us,” said High Springs Fire Department public information officer Kevin Mangan.

The High Springs Fire Department has a well trained and dedicated team, but using technology that is around 20 years old has limited the department, said Municipal Emergency Services customer service representative John Montgomery. “High Springs Fire Department is an excellent candidate because not only were their tools old, and not up to the current new car technology, restrained budgets. But most importantly, they had the drive, the training and the willingness to see this from inception,” he said. “It’s a blessing to work with life safety heroes,” Montgomery added.

The new equipment will help firefighters work faster and save time, so crucial in emergency situations when every second counts, Mangan mentioned. “You probably heard the term golden hour before, when they talk about medical emergencies,” he said.

“And what that golden hour is, from the time that somebody calls 911 to the time that somebody is receiving truly advanced medical care, typically in a hospital, their chances of life greatly are increased if they arrive at the facility within that 60 minutes,”  Mangan added. “So if we can save 2 or 3 minutes by not having to set this [old equipment] up, that’s 2 or 3 minutes sooner that they are getting out of the vehicle, that’s 2 or 3 minutes sooner that they are in the back of the rescue on their way to the hospital.”

The department will receive the new radios in a couple of months and after a short training period the radios will be put into service.

New Haven Acting Assistant Fire Chief Matthew Marcarelli says that the new radios will be more reliable when firefighters are facing emergencies. “They are water proof they adapt to the firefighting environment and are more ergonomically designed for firefighter to use the gloved hand and then also have some added safety features.”

The city will kick in $38,000 of funding for the radios which the department says it has in its budget.

The new truck was paid for with a combination of a $236,000 federal Assistance to Firefighters Grants, $50,000 worth of township money and $14,000 worth of fire company money raised through multiple fundraisers.

“Without the grant, it would have been impossible,” Brown said. “The township supervisors were also extremely helpful with the purchase. We couldn’t have done it without them.”

The new 31-foot-long truck was built by Midwest Fire Equipment & Repair Company out of Luverne, Mn. It holds 3,000 gallons of water and can pump 1,000 gallons a minute. It also has a PTO pump on the truck instead of needing a portable pump, all the dump valves are electric operated from the cab and has a lot of compartment space.

“It’s night and day,” Brown said. “There’s just no comparison to the old truck.”

The tanker puts the township’s fleet up to six vehicles, including an engine, a mini-pumper, a brush truck and two boats. 

“We have a reliable apparatus that can function in multiple aspects,” Brown said.