GREENFIELD — Several local fire departments will get new self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) air packs, thanks to a $630,000 Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grant.
Congressman Jim McGovern visited the Greenfield Fire Station on Friday, along with Mayor Roxann Wedegartner, Greenfield Fire Chief Robert Strahan and fire chiefs from Erving, Turners Falls, Deerfield and South Deerfield, to announce the grant award.
The five departments will all benefit from the grant, which was awarded as part of FEMA’s Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) program. Greenfield firefighter William Kimball, who was in attendance on Friday, applied for the grant. According to a press release from the Mayor’s Office, the city of Greenfield will administer the grant on behalf of the other four departments.
“Working with our close mutual aid partners, it is now more essential than ever to maintain fire protection through cooperation,” Strahan said in the press release. “This grant is an extension of that partnership.”
“This is a regional effort, so the fire departments can assist each other seamlessly,” McGovern said Friday, pointing out that because the five departments will have the same SCBA air packs, they’ll be able to share equipment during mutual aid events.
Referencing the Worcester Cold Storage and Warehouse Co. fire that claimed the lives of six firefighters in 1999, McGovern emphasized the importance of having state-of-the-art equipment.
“The timing around receiving this grant is so important,” Wedegartner said in the release. “The COVID-19 pandemic has brought into sharp focus the need for our firefighters and emergency response personnel to stay on top of training, and to have at the ready the equipment and supplies they need to act quickly and effectively when the need arises.”
