Vivienne Aguilar
The Modesto Bee
(TNS)

Mar. 12—Modesto Junior College’s School of Public Safety is trying to get back to the days when it had everything it needed to train firefighters and emergency medical services students on modern equipment, said Ron Cripe, MJC’s director of the Regional Fire Training Center. Federal funding is helping it do so.

The center recently was awarded $2 million, said Cripe, and a fully equipped fire engine alone can cost over $1 million.

The Yosemite Community College District applied for federal funding to get new equipment for MJC’s training center, which is used for continuing education by fire departments across the Central Valley and Mother Lode areas.

The $2 million, from the Federal Consolidated Appropriations Act, has been “earmarked” for MJC’s Fire Academy, said Yosemite Community College District Chancellor Henry C.V. Yong. Fire Academy courses are taught at the Regional Fire Training Center, which is on the MJC College of Public Safety campus. This is the first time the district has looked into funding this way; normally, it applies for grants.

Pedro Mendez, MJC’s dean of career technical education, said Sen. Alex Padilla and Rep. Josh Harder helped secure the federal money. Harder “was a part-time instructor at MJC before he ran for Congress. Not too many people remember that,” Yong told The Bee. And as a congressman, he has visited the fire training facility.

The money “will support state-of-the-art training for students enrolled in MJC’s Fire Academy and Fire Science degree and certificate programs, as well as for working firefighters who depend on MJC for continuing education in the latest fire-suppression techniques,” according to a press release.

The training facility is shopping around for two main pieces of equipment for students, Cripe said. First, it’s reached out to vendors hoping to find a fire engine.

“Most engines (when they’re very stripped down) are going to be somewhere between $200,000 to $700,000. It depends on all of the uniqueness that they have to have,” Cripe said. “I need something that’s going to pump (water), take equipment from point A to point B out on the grounds and be able to function with everything that we need to, reliably.”

Second, it’s hoping to find a training prop for fire and EMS students to practice potentially life-threatening scenarios without being in danger. “The primary prop is going to be the design of a building that will incorporate all of the rescue type techniques: search, rescue, breach, etc. We need to teach (things like) how to break through a wall to get from one room to another,” Cripe said.

“They definitely need new (training) props,” said Max Raymond, a 19-year-old MJC student who operates the Code 3 Emergency Instagram account. Raymond is enrolled in the Emergency Medical Responder 350 course within the School of Public Safety. In his free time, he listens to local emergency scanner channels and photographs firefighters in action for the 12,000-plus followers on the social media platform.

The training facility currently has a five-story, concrete prop with rooms that are able to be fully engulfed in flames, beds and stoves that can withstand fire and last up to a decade of use, plus more, to give students the space to practice the techniques they learn in the classroom.

“We probably have about 75% get employed in the fire service in some way. Now that may be working for an ambulance company, and going through that process, and then maybe later, jumping into a fire agency,” Cripe said.

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Marah Morrison
The News-Herald, Willoughby, Ohio
(TNS)

Mar. 11—The Willoughby Hills City Council’s Finance Committee recently held its first of two budget hearings.

The initial hearing had a focus on the city’s Service Department, as well as its Fire Department.

Among the topics that were discussed was that the price of road salt is almost the same as last year. If the mild weather should continue, the city will have a stockpile of salt to carry into next winter at the same price, said Mayor Andy Gardner.

“With the construction of the new salt storage facility, we have the perfect place to store the salt,” Gardner said.

The focus on the city’s road resurfacing program will be the cost of the engineering and local share for the Ohio Department of Transportation’s Chardon Road resurfacing project, which will take place west from SOM Center Road to Bishop Road.

“These costs will be incurred this year and the resurfacing will take place in 2024,” Gardner said. “The city will be resurfacing Pleasant Valley Road from the bridge west to Chardon Road and restriping all roads in the city. I am also hoping that we will again be able to coordinate the repainting of fire hydrants in the city with the Lake County Water Department.”

Meanwhile, Fire Chief Robert Gandee said his department continues to focus on increasing staffing and updating its vehicle fleet.

“The 2023 budget includes funding for a sixth firefighter on all shifts,” Gandee said. “Our hope is that we will be able to provide more staffing on our emergency responses while, at the same time, having a buffer in place to avoid overtime in the event that a scheduled firefighter cannot work their shift.”

Gandee also reported that the department’s new incident command vehicle is in its final stages of upfitting and should be on the road in the next three weeks. The department’s new fire engine will start to be built this month with delivery late this summer to follow.

In addition, a new ambulance will be ordered to come into service in 2024 and the replacement for the fire chief’s emergency response vehicle is expected to be delivered next quarter. The Service Department has also been able to do some projects to freshen up some of the spaces in the Fire Department.

“The department has obtained many grants to assist with the cost of equipment replace over the years — new SCBAs, radios, hoses, thermal imagining equipment,” Gandee said. “We will continue to pursue those grants. The department is also evaluating the use of grants to add additional, full-time personnel.”

The next budget hearing is scheduled for March 15 and will focus on the Police Department and administrative budgets. City Councilman Mike Kline, chair of the Finance Committee, said he welcomes questions from the public and can be reached via email at MikeKline@Willoughbyhills-oh.gov.

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The Flint Fire Department requested multiple new fire trucks for the department at last week’s city council meeting, abc12.com reported.

A fire official told the council that the department needed about five to six new trucks. The department sought permission to purchase three trucks: A ladder truck, a heavy rescue truck and a pumper truck, the report said.

The ladder truck would cost just over $1 million while the pumper and heavy rescue would cost about $750,000 apiece. All three trucks are currently available as demonstration or gently used models from Pierce Manufacturing, according to the report.

The fire official said that some existing Flint fire trucks had been driven over 175,000 miles and they are rusting, the report said.