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Posted: Sep 2, 2016

Back Mountain Regional Fire & EMS Receives $218,000 Grant

DALLAS - Back Mountain Regional Fire & EMS received a funding boost from a Department of Homeland Security grant to increase emergency personnel staffing. A grant of $218,000 from Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) program was awarded to the Back Mountain Regional Fire & EMS Wednesday, according to a news release from U.S.

The SAFER program is designed to assist fire departmentsfinancially to train existing and recruit new front-line emergency services personnel.

In November 2015, Barletta toured one of the three Back Mountain Regional Fire & EMS stations with Fire Chief Harry Vivian.

During the tour, Barletta learned the statewide trend of diminishing volunteer firefighters extends into Luzerne County.

The Read more

Posted: Sep 2, 2016

Kennett Fire Company Houses New Truck

KENNETT SQUARE >> Members of the Kennett Fire Company and their supporters pulled out all the stops on Saturday to celebrate the housing of their new truck. The huge vehicle cost more than $1 million and has a 95-foot tower that can reach any structure in the borough.
 The housing involved three vehicles: the ambulance, another Truck 24 and the new truck.

Each time, different teams of participants stood behind the vehicles and symbolically pushed them into the bay (although they were being helped by drivers and engines in reverse).

The Kennett Fire Company serves Kennett Township as well as Kennett Square. But it was noted that the very tall tower truck could be call upon for help all over the region.

Visiting firefighters came from as far away was Delaware and Lancaster counties as well as areas of Maryland. The West Grove Fire Company provided stand-by overnight so the Kennett members could hold an extended celebration.

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Posted: Sep 2, 2016

Upper Pine Has New Truck to Fight Wildfires

Enlargephoto Photo by Melanie Brubaker Mazur Visitors to last week's Bayfield Block Party are the first to check out the newest wildland fire truck in the area. Upper Pine River Fire Protection District recently took delivery of a new Dodge 5500 wildland fire truck from Texas.

Staff members are currently receiving training on the new vehicle.

"Everybody loves this truck," said Corey Adamy, an Upper Pine firefighter who was showing the vehicle during the block party on Aug. 25. "This thing can go where no other truck can go."

The four-wheel-drive with dual wheels holds four crewmembers plus equipment. It's designed to be the first truck to reach a wildfire, or even a home up a winding driveway where a bigger truck can't get to.

Adamy explained that a complaint for many firefighters is that there's no room for their personal gear along with everything else they have to haul on a fire truck.

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Posted: Sep 2, 2016

Park Ridge Fire Department Awarded $500,000 FEMA Grant to Replace 21-Year-Old Engine

A grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency will allow the Park Ridge Fire Department to replace a 21-year-old fire engine after attempts to obtain city funding reportedly failed.
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Posted: Sep 2, 2016

Santee Fire Department's Fire Trucks Are Going Red

The rear view mirrors for Santee residents will start to reflect the color red as in fire engine red on a fire trucks beginning this fall in the event of an emergency call to the Santee Fire Department.

Santee will officially be switching from the color yellow to red on their fire trucks starting with the first fire engine red one to be delivered soon from a plant in Appleton, Wisconsin. Eventually all their vehicles will be red.

Santee Fire Department’s Battalion Chief Tim Stuber, who served as chairperson on the Apparatus Committee, travelled to Pierce Manufacturing Inc. in Appleton on the project that was first presented to him about a year ago.

There were three trips for three different types of inspections of the “apparatus” as Stuber refers to it. The first inspection was for pre-construction and meeting with the engineers according to Stuber. The second inspection is to see if the firetruck is built to specifications and the third inspection is to review the almost completed apparatus and check if the diesel truck is built to expectations.

Stuber said, “This is not necessarily for big things” referring to the final inspection.

Santee Fire Department had switched over to yellow about 50 years ago. The switch back over to red is considered by the Santee Fire department personnel as a rebranding that honors a longstanding worldwide fire service tradition.

Stuber explained that nothing is significantly new. The truck will have modern electronics such as the Panasonic Toughbook. Toughbooks typically include a camera, backlit keyboard, GPS receiver, a broadband and multi touch plus and digitizer LCD that can work with any glove. The Toughbook links into dispatch and gives detailed information on the type of call it is and where it is.

“A black box on the trucks basically records the speed, braking, and the driving style of the driver in the event of an accident. Black boxes are not new or unique,” he said.

Officially the black boxes are vehicle-recording devices. 

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