Departments in NJ and NS to receive four new sets of turnout gear and four new helmets each
MSA Safety, DuPont Personal Protection, and the National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC) have teamed up once again to help volunteer fire departments obtain much-needed personal protective equipment through MSA and DuPont’s Globe Gear Giveaway. This annual program began in 2012 and has to date provided 611 sets of turnout gear to 134 departments. This year, another 13 departments will each receive four new sets of turnout gear and four new helmets to help enhance the safety of their firefighters. The first 500 applicants also received a one-year NVFC membership, courtesy of MSA.
The first two recipients of MSA and DuPont’s 2022 Globe Gear Giveaway are the Riverdale (NJ) Volunteer Fire Department and Springhill (NS, Canada) Volunteer Fire Department.
Riverdale Volunteer Fire Department
The Riverdale Volunteer Fire Department (RFD) is an all-volunteer department located in northern New Jersey. The 33 volunteers serve a population of approximately 5,000 over 2.1 square miles and respond to an average of 200 calls annually.
RFD’s service area contains portions of an interstate and major state highway as well as large stores and apartment and condominium complexes. They were last able to secure an Assistance to Firefighters Grant for new gear 10 years ago, but these sets of gear are now no longer NFPA-compliant. In addition, they have new members who do not fit the sizes of the current gear available. With much of their budget going towards other necessities, the department struggles to buy a set or two of new gear each year.
“Finding funding to purchase new turnout gear is very difficult with all the requirements on fire departments nowadays,” said assistant chief Patrick Cleary. “Having new gear would improve morale and increase the safety of firefighters in our department.”
Springhill Volunteer Fire Department
Located in rural Nova Scotia, the Springhill Volunteer Fire Department (SVFD) is an all-volunteer department with 35 members. Serving a population of approximately 5,500 over 185 square miles, SVFD responds to an average of 154 calls annually.
Devastated by back-to-back mining disasters in the 1950s and a fire in the 1960s that destroyed most of the downtown, Springhill has only recently begun to recover. The SVFD is an important part of that recovery, doing whatever it can to assist their community and serving as a beacon of light through trying times. Their dedicated firefighters respond to chimney fires, structure fires, and wildland fires, among other emergencies, as well as conduct aggressive fire prevention campaigns. During the pandemic, the volunteers stepped up to deliver groceries to those who could not or did not want to go out.
Unfortunately, over 80 percent of the department’s gear is more than 10 years old. Although the community does what it can to support the department, SVFD simply does not have the funding to acquire new gear for all its members.
“Training and responding to calls are done with safety as the first priority, and the job still gets done. To be awarded four sets of turnout gear would be a real boost to the department’s morale and [our firefighters’] sense of pride and accomplishment,” said firefighter Chris Mayne. He added that in addition, “This recognition would be an added sense of pride in the community for their fire department.”
Additional awards will be made monthly throughout 2022. Stay tuned to the NVFC web site, Read more
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Posted: Aug 1, 2022
During last Thursday’s Idaho Falls City Council meeting elected officials unanimously approved funding to purchase property to build a new fire station to accommodate commercial and residential growth, according to a news release from the city.
The City Council approved the purchase of the seven acre vacant lot on the corner of Spitfire and Boeing Streets with a goal of building a new fire station to the north of Idaho Falls in the next three to four years.
“This property purchase was planned and it will be accomplished without using local property tax dollars,” says Idaho Falls Mayor Rebecca Casper. “City officials are entrusted to spend public funds wisely, so when the opportunity arose to purchase the property with federal ARPA dollars combined with funds from the sale of an unneeded city property, we jumped on it. The Council members and I feel this creative approach best serves the interest of city taxpayers while still planning for future safety needs,” explains Casper.
A total of $10,000 was authorized by City Council as earnest money towards the $900,000 property. A total of $658,000 from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) was allocated with an additional $252,000 coming from the auction and sale of the old fire station/fire prevention building located on the corner of Holmes Avenue and 8th Street.
“Planning for future growth of our city as well as the infrastructure and public safety needs that growth requires is always at the forefront of our minds,” states IFFD Fire Chief Duane Nelson.
The IFFD has experienced a steady increase in calls for service over the past three to four years, averaging 1,000 more calls per year. In 2021, the department had a significant spike at 3,000 more calls, totaling 17,230. IFFD not only provides fire protection to the City of Idaho Falls and most of Bonneville County, but they also have contracts to provide EMS services to all of Bonneville County and portions of Jefferson and Bingham Counties. IFFD Annual Report 2021
According to the NFPA (National Fire Protection Association), response time standards for EMS calls is under 4 minutes and under 5 minutes for fire-related calls. The determination of the need for a new station and where to locate it was accomplished through NFPA standards, IFFD dispatch call data, and growth projections based on City GIS (Geographic Information System) mapping. The northern station will address the growth along North River Road, Sage Lakes, and the northern county line.
The design for the new station will include multiple bays that will not only house frontline engines, ambulances, and personnel but also address current storage limitations. The location of the station has an added benefit of improving efficiency as it will be located near the city shop and vehicle wrecking yards, making it easier for IFFD to coordinate vehicle accident extrication training on IFFD’s property.
“This new station is one more step we are taking toward maintaining a high level of service delivery while keeping us in line with national standards and relieving pressure on our current personnel responding to high call volumes. We thank our community and elected officials for their continued support,” adds Nelson.
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Posted: Aug 1, 2022
Firefighters with the Falls of Rough (KY) Fire Department have recovered some of the items stolen from their station sometime Tuesday night, or early Wednesday morning, but they are still missing items and are looking for help to retrieve them, according to a report published by K105 radio station.
According to the report, the station on Green Farms Road was burglarized and more than $10,000 worth of gear and equipment was stolen, including three sets of newly purchased turnout gear valued at $2,500 each.
Firefighters took a proactive approach to recovering the stolen items and patrolled back roads in the area looking for items the thieves may have discarded, according to the report. While on patrol, firefighters noticed a dirt bike in the back of a pickup truck that was allegedly stolen from an adjacent, privately owned building during the same time frame the station had been burglarized.
From that observation, burglary suspects were identified and some of the stolen equipment was recovered, although thousands of dollars’ worth of items remains missing, said the report and the case remains under investigation.
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Posted: Aug 1, 2022
According to a report from The Morning Call, despite Hellertown, Pennsylvania’s, Dewey Fire Company (DFC) #1 taking delivery of its new state-of-the-art quint truck on June 1, paperwork problems sidelined the $1 million firetruck that had been serving the area for several weeks.
The DFC’s new quint features a 111-foot aerial ladder and 500-gallon water tank and is now the department’s largest piece of equipment, said DFC Chief Matt Simkovic.
However, issues with getting the vehicle’s title and registration prevented PFC members from deploying it to responses or even training on it on the street.
Last week, DFC finally received the documents from PennDOT. An official with state Sen. Lisa Boscola, D-Northampton said that the process should have taken 2-3 weeks.
Last week, Simkovich said that DFC firefighters could place the quint in service as early as this week, although most likely, it will not be done until the end of August, depending on how soon the firefighters are versed in using the truck. Training with and supplying the quint began last week, he said.
Borough Manager Cathy Hartranft said the issues stemmed from a delay in dealing with information provided to the state. She said the borough used a private notary service to handle the documents, but when the situation suffered a delay, she contacted Boscola’s office for assistance. Boscola’s staff learned from PennDOT that the application for the vehicle documents was rejected twice and returned to the notary, 412 Auto Tags & Notary.
Owner Yolanda Pinto, who took over the business July 1, said there was an additional problem regarding the borough’s tax exempt status that PennDOT questioned.
Officials with PennDOT did not respond to requests for comment.
Simkovic said the new truck might have helped in responding to a rubbish fire June 20 outside the Dollar General store on Main Street that extended into the building. Although Simkovich also said that missing this additional apparatus did not make a “significant difference” in handling that or other recent responses.
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