Updated: FEMA approves GFD grant

By Sarah Einselen

Inquirer Reporter

The Galion Fire Depart­ment received noti­fi­ca­tion on Wednes­day, Feb. 1, from Sen. Rob Port­man (R-Ohio) that the department’s appli­ca­tion for a Fed­eral Emer­gency Man­age­ment Agency grant was approved. The $50,000 grant will be used to pur­chase ven­ti­lated fire gear stor­age and equip­ment to elim­i­nate diesel exhaust from the city build­ing, chief Phil Jack­son said.

“FEMA, as I do, rec­og­nized the inher­ent dan­gers of con­stant expo­sure to toxic fumes and car­cino­gens on our fire­fight­ers as well as all other city employ­ees that work at the munic­i­pal build­ing,” Jack­son said.

Of the $50,705 included in the grant, $48,170 will come from the fed­eral gov­ern­ment and Galion will pick up 5 per­cent, or $2,535.

The equip­ment to be pur­chased includes a vehicle-mounted diesel exhaust mod­ule for every truck, as well as non-porous gear stor­age sys­tems that allow air to ven­ti­late the gear. The cur­rent, wooden stor­age sys­tems do not allow for ventilation.

“The city build­ing is an older build­ing and is not com­pletely iso­lated from other con­nected city depart­ments,” said Gene Toy, city man­ager. “As a result all munic­i­pal build­ing employ­ees are, to a degree, exposed to the fumes and con­t­a­m­i­nants from the fire depart­ment trucks. This sys­tem will elim­i­nate this dan­ger­ous expo­sure to all who work at the city build­ing as well as the gen­eral pub­lic that may visit.”

The grant was one of 362 grants total­ing about $68 mil­lion that were awarded this week through the fed­eral Assis­tance to Fire­fight­ers Grant Pro­gram, accord­ing to fig­ures from the grant program’s web­site. Shelby’s fire depart­ment was one of 35 other Ohio depart­ments that just received grants. Its grant, approx­i­mately $75,000, will go toward pur­chas­ing equip­ment for the depart­ment and per­sonal pro­tec­tive equip­ment for the firefighters.

The 991 grants awarded year-to-date total $185.5 mil­lion for fis­cal year 2011, not count­ing each fire department’s match­ing 5 percent.

Another FEMA grant that the Galion depart­ment applied for was denied for 2011. That grant would have funded the pur­chase of a replace­ment fire truck, Jack­son said. The city recov­ery plan and bud­get included appro­pri­a­tions for the pur­chase in the case the grant was not obtained.

Posted by Sarah Einselen on Feb 2 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.