SAN ANGELO, Texas (Concho Valley Homepage) — The Grape Creek Volunteer Fire Department received a $24,820 grant from the Lower Colorado River Authority to replace the department’s air packs with self-contained breathing equipment.
According to a release from LCRA, with the Community Development Partnership Program grant, and $119,000 in matching funds from Grape Creek VFD, the department will purchase 15 new sets of self-contained breathing apparatus air packs to replace SCBA air packs that are older than some of the firefighters using them.
“This grant will help us buy the air packs needed to replace all the sets we carry on our six firetrucks to keep volunteers safer with better, more reliable equipment,” Deputy Fire Chief Jose Rivera said in the release. “Having new air packs also means we can work more effectively to save as much of a structure as possible because we can aggressively attack fires from inside a building instead of being forced to fight flames from the outside through the windows.”
LCRA says only 25 volunteer firefighters provide fire, medical and other emergency services to the 220-square mile area around San Angelo while also acting as a mutual aid partner for the San Angelo Fire Department. This new equipment will be compatible with the SAFD equipment, thus improving the department’s coordinated responses.
“It’s a huge achievement to be able to respond to an incident with the same SCBA air packs that our largest mutual aid partner, San Angelo Fire Department, uses,” Rivera said. “Our new SCBA air packs will be completely interchangeable with their SCBA equipment, plus the new equipment will allow us to refill our SCBA air packs from their SCBA air packs and SCBA refill station, making for a more efficient and effective coordinated response.”
Rivera is hoping that the new equipment will bring in more volunteers.
“A lot of people are surprised we are a volunteer Fire Department because they see the high level of service we provide and how seriously we take this job,” Rivera said. “We are always looking for new ways to make our community safer.”
This grant is one of 34 that was recently awarded through the LCRA’s Community Development Partnership Program. This program provides assistance to emergency responders, volunteer fire department, local governments, and nonprofit organizations to fund capital improvement projects. Applications for the next round of grants will be accepted in July. More information is available at lcra.org/cdpp.