California Water Service (Cal Water) announced last week the recipients of its fourth annual Firefighter Grant Program; the utility provided a total of $185,763 in grants to seven fire departments, surpassing last year’s $175,000. 

The program started in 2019 with $60,000 allocated for grant funds; however, due to the popularity of the program and expressed needs of the applicants, Cal Water has now more than tripled its giving. The grants are designed to offset costs associated with fire protection efforts, life-saving equipment, and training. 

Cal Water awarded its 2022 grants to the following departments based on need for resources to protect the life and property of citizens or firefighters:

• Bakersfield Fire Department, for ventilation fans used during structural firefighting operations
• Marysville Fire Department, for five self-contained breathing apparatuses, which allow firefighters to breathe clean air while in dangerous environments 
• Ventura County Fire Protection District, for portable firefighting pumps
• Salinas Fire Department, for an AI-driven autonomous flight engine
• North County Fire Authority (Daly City), for a large-diameter fire hose
• Sonoma County Fire District, for wildland firefighting equipment, including a fire hose, wildland hose packs, web gear, fire shelters, hose appliances, and scene mop-up equipment
• Redwood City Fire Department, for a complement of large-diameter and attack hoses 

“Fire departments and water providers depend on one another to protect their local communities. That is why elevating our partnership by offering grants to supplement life-saving equipment makes perfect sense,” said Martin A. Kropelnicki, Cal Water President and CEO. “For the past four years, we have had the honor of helping the first responders who risk their lives to protect ours, and we look forward to opening the 2023 cycle next summer.”

The firefighter grants are funded through Cal Water’s philanthropic giving program and do not impact customer rates.

California Water Service serves approximately 2 million people through 494,500 customer connections in California. The utility has provided water service in the state since 1926. For more information, visit www.calwater.com.

En desarrollo: Un Airbus A320 de LATAM Airlines impacta con un camión o autobomba de bomberos en el Aeropuerto de #Lima. pic.twitter.com/pRknU5s0pN

— Nicolás Larenas (@n_larenas) November 18, 2022

Peruvian officials said a fire truck that collided with a LATAM Airlines plane on a runway at Lima’s international airport was taking part in a nearby fire drill and entered the runway without authorization, ABCNews.go.com reported.

Flight LA2213, operated with an Airbus 320neo, was taking off from Lima’s airport for the city of Juliaca in southern Peru on Friday when the truck entered the runway and was hit by a wing of the plane. Part of the plane caught fire, but none of the crew or passengers were injured.

However, two airport firefighters in the truck were killed and a third was injured.

The firefighters were participating in a disaster response exercise, officials said in a news conference Saturday. They said the drill was part of the preparations for a new runway, scheduled to be ready next January, the report said.

VIDEO: A320 Airliner Slams into Fire Truck on Peru Runway; Two Firefighters Killed

The Plainville Fire Department recently received an $8,000 matching grant from the Heartland Community Foundation to buy grain bin entrapment rescue equipment, HaysPost.com reported.

The matching funds from the fire department came from a golf tournament fundraiser in April that raised $7,900, a fire official said, according to the report.

The rescue kits include safety harnesses, ropes, a tripod, a coffer bin and a grain auger, the report said. The equipment is on order. Some of the Plainville firefighters, who are all volunteers, have already received entrapment training. More firefighters will be trained once the equipment arrives, according to the report.

By Mike Ciampo

Hillsborough Township sits about mid-center in the state of New Jersey in Somerset County. Located about 55 miles from New York City, it is considered a suburb and part of the metropolitan area.

The township sits in the Raritan Valley and is located not far from the Raritan River and heavily-traveled Route 287. The township is full of single-family dwellings, townhouses, condominiums, large commercial properties and numerous strip malls and shopping plazas. In 2021, the 55-square-mile township celebrated its 250^th anniversary.

The Hillsborough Fire District provides fire protection to the residents and visitors with career and volunteer staff. The career firefighters provide staffing and supplements the volunteer force Monday through Friday, 7 a.m.-5 p.m. The district also conducts all of the fire inspections according to the NJ Uniform Fire Code, manages all of the fire district’s administrative duties and conducts all of the fire cause and origin investigations. The career staff is also certified to the level of EMT or EMR through the NJ Department of Health, swiftwater rescue and extrication technicians. Many of the personnel are also certified as fire and arson investigators. In addition to the career staff, the township is served by three volunteer fire companies within the township and also contracts with the neighboring Neshanic Fire Department.

Flagtown is an unincorporated community located in Hillsborough and is home of the Hillsborough Volunteer Fire Company 1, one of the three volunteer companies serving the township. The company is the first fire department formed in Township. In 1937, seven members of the Township Board of Trade met and decided that the township needed its own fire company due to an increase of fires in the area. The following year the department received its charter and bought its first fire engine that year for $475 from another department. A used chemical engine was bought and nine years later, they bought a surplus army truck and turned it into another fire apparatus.

Like many fire departments, start up involved high costs and to build a firehouse was a difficult process, especially during the World War years. Originally, the engines were stored in a garage at the Clawson Machine Shop for the first eight years. Luckily in 1946 lumber was donated by Doris Duke, a tobacco heiress who lived in the area, and construction began on the firehouse. Over the years the building has been renovated to allow more bays for other apparatus and to meet the needs of the department. Another historic note about the company is they are known as “Mean and Green”, due to its apparatus paint scheme. Their earlier rigs used to be painted pine green and not red, nowadays the color is more of a fluorescent lime green and almost yellow, which makes them stand out.

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