The Sparta Fire Department is upgrading critical life-saving equipment after receiving a state grant to purchase three new self-contained breathing apparatuses.
Sparta Fire Chief Kevin Powers said the department received a state grant of just over $35,000, designed to support fire departments primarily made up of volunteers. Powers said the funding is extremely beneficial, as raising enough money to update critical equipment can be a significant challenge.
“Even though we’re primarily volunteers, we still fight the same fires as full-time departments, and SCBAs are one of our primary pieces of equipment that we use in order to fight our fires,” Powers said.
Powers emphasized the importance of keeping equipment up to date, especially as call volumes continue to rise, putting additional wear and tear on both personnel and gear. He said the new SCBAs will ensure the department can continue providing reliable, rapid response to the community.
“The SCBA allows us to have aggressive interior firefighting operations or deal with hazmat situations,” Powers said. “So it protects our airways, and so that we’re breathing the air that’s coming from those bottles. These bottles are, they say, 45-minute bottles, but with working time, we’re looking at about 25 to 30 minutes on average for a firefighter to use this. So this allows us, if there’s a rescue that needs to be made in a structural fire or a hazmat incident or any kind of what we call IDLH atmosphere, we can go make that rescue and save those residents.”
Powers noted that firefighting equipment has grown increasingly expensive over the years. While this purchase does not replace all of the department’s SCBAs, Powers said it positions them well for future updates.
“We’re hoping in a couple of years that we could replace a couple more instead of getting them all at once,” Powers said. “The last time, about 12 years ago, we had purchased all our SCBAs at one time. This way, we can start cycling in SCBAs every couple of years, so that we have a good cycle period. So this should set us up in a pretty good position to be set up for this piece of equipment that we use.”
Powers said the department is also reviewing overall equipment cycles to better prepare for increased call volumes and ensure readiness for future emergencies.