The Bureau of Land Management recently transferred a water tender to the Wheeler County Fire and Rescue Rangeland Fire Protection Association and a wildland fire engine to the Alfalfa Fire District to enhance their wildland firefighting capabilities, ktvz.com reported.

The equipment was transferred under BLM’s Rural Fire Readiness (RFR) program, which is designed to provide equipment to local wildland firefighting partners at no cost.

The water tender will be stationed in Wheeler County and rotated seasonally between Fossil and Spray, the report said. It will be available for 14 trained firefighters to use for wildland fire response across their 500,000-acre district. The engine will be stationed in Alfalfa, and available for 18 trained firefighters to serve their district, which spans 68 square miles, according to the report.  

Rangeland Fire Protection Associations are private, non-profit organizations established to help prevent and suppress fires on unprotected lands – those without federal or state jurisdiction. They represent a collaborative effort among local private landowners, the BLM, and the Oregon Department of Forestry and are essentially “neighbors helping neighbors.” 

The Bremen Fire Department dedicated its new truck to the late Chief Donald “Donnie” Leeman with a traditional wetdown ceremony December 20, lcnme.com reported.

Leeman, who died unexpectedly September 17, was instrumental in obtaining the custom pumper/tanker for the department, the report said.

Firefighters and emergency workers from departments across Lincoln County joined Leeman’s family and the Bremen community at Colby & Gale Inc. at Biscay Road, where Leeman worked for the last 10 years, to witness ladder trucks from Damariscotta and Waldoboro departments welcome the truck into service.

The Federal Emergency Management Administration informed Ballston Spa (NY) Wednesday that the fire department (BSFD) has been awarded an “Assistance to Firefighters Grant” (AFG) after the department recently applied for $168,000 to purchase new SCBAs and more air bottles, news10.com reported.

The BSFD has been buying this equipment bit by bit over the last few years, as the cost of such equipment has increased greatly over the last decade, the report said.

The grant application highlighted the need for an increased quantity of new and more modernized SCBAs and bottles needed to provide oxygen to firefighters in low-oxygen fire scenes, according to the report.

New SCBA bottles often include enhancements that allow a “breathe-along” function, whereby a firefighter who is experiencing trouble with their bottle—including exhaustion of oxygen supply—can use the bottle of a colleague with them at the fire scene until they can be brought to safety for a replacement bottle. Service life for SCBA cylinders is limited to 15 years, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation Code of Federal Regulations and Special Permits, which can be extended under certain circumstances for a limited duration.