The Habersham County Fire Department has two new extrication tools and a life-saving breathing device for firefighters thanks to a grant that saved taxpayers thousands.
The county’s fire department received the Assistance to Firefighters Grant, funded through the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The grant totaled around $729,809, and the department was able to purchase their needed equipment with just over $73,190 of county funds. Without the grant, the equipment would have cost $803,000.
One of the items purchased, a Self-Contained Breathing Apparatuses (SCBA) is a mask firefighters wear that keeps them breathing safely in hazardous conditions, and are must-haves when it comes to firefighting in structures where there could be hazardous materials burning.
“SCBA is the lifeline of a firefighter when operating in toxic or Immediately Dangerous to Life and Health (IDLH) atmospheres such a structure fire,” Habersham County Emergency Services Director Chad Black tells Now Habersham. “It’s a must, and it’s a must [that] it works and works properly, there can be no errors when it comes to this when being used.”
An SCBA reaches the end of its life after fifteen years of use. The Habersham County Fire Department’s current SCBA was two years away from reaching its end-of-life when they were awarded a grant to replace it.
The extrication tools the department was also able to purchase with the grant replaced two 10 and 20-year-old outdated extrication tools that have failed on-site before.
The grant can be a grueling process to apply for. Black says that the application process itself took about three months to complete.
“Grants are difficult many times, and very time consuming, but in the end, it is the right thing to do,” Black says. “[It] helps to offset [the] cost to the citizens for the needs of capital equipment for Emergency Services in Habersham County, and that should always be a focal point for our department.”
