ORANGE — Homeland security starts at home, and rescue efforts at the local level are made by first responders who need top-notch equipment to ensure the safety of themselves and the public.
That was the message stressed Thursday morning by U.S. Rep. James McGovern when he visited the Orange Fire Department to congratulate the town on a $47,620 federal grant to replace its Jaws of Life hydraulic equipment.
“With local budgets being strapped, sometimes it’s impossible to be able to update the equipment and get the newest stuff,” McGovern said to Fire Chief James Young outside the fire station with Orange Selectboard Clerk James Cornwell, firefighter/EMT Ian Hurley, firefighter/paramedic Tim Matthews and FEMA Fire Program Specialist David Parr looking on. “It’s designed not only to protect the community, but to protect the men and women who serve in the fire department. So I want to applaud you for your grant application.”
The department’s current Jaws of Life, used to extract people from damaged vehicles and other small spaces, is 30 years old. The money for a new one comes from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which is under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Young said the new Jaws of Life will be battery operated, meaning it can be taken to remote areas without the limitation of a cord or wire. He said the equipment has an estimated lifespan of 15 to 20 years. The department’s existing Jaws of Life is outdated, according to the chief. “It’s reached the end of its useful life and we’ve found, both in training exercises and real-life incidents, that it is not performing as we would like it to,” Young said. “Especially with today’s modern vehicles — the reinforced steel, boron, that type of thing that we’re finding in the newer vehicles.”
Young said a 5 percent match ($2,381) is required from the town.
The $47,620 comes through the FEMA’s Assistance to Firefighters Grant Operations and Safety program. McGovern, a Democrat representing the 2nd Congressional District, explained the grants came about in the aftermath of the Worcester fire that killed six firefighters in 1999.
Parr, the fire program specialist from FEMA, said this grant program receives 10,000 applications nationwide each year and only 2,400 to 2,500 are successful in receiving money.
“The competition is stiff,” he said to everyone. “When I travel around New England, I see these little mill towns that are really depressed. And this is where the grant money, I think, helps the fire departments the best, in these small towns that can’t afford this equipment without the grant funding.”
Parr was a firefighter in Wakefield for 30 years and has been with FEMA for nine.
Young also said he has applied for a grant for a new pumper truck, but he has not gotten an update on it yet.