If all goes well, firefighters in Woodland, Willow Oak and West Plainfield will get some needed help in breathing when they walk into heavy smoke.
On Tuesday night, the Woodland City Council was scheduled to approve submitting a grant application to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for a new self-contained breathing apparatus “fill station” to replace an outdated one located at Fire Station No. 3.
According to a report prepared by Woodland Fire Chief Rebecca Ramirez, Woodland would act as the “host agency” with the Willow Oak and West Plainfield fire protection districts to purchase the $440,000 station, some $430,500 to be reimbursed by FEMA.
Ramirez reported that should the grant be awarded, Woodland would be responsible for the initial purchase with each agency required to make a 10 percent match for their share.
“The partner agencies, Willow Oak Fire Protection District and West Plainfield Fire Protection District, will be requesting a myriad of SCBA equipment that will total approximately $345,000 with a combined match of $34,500, all which will be reimbursed to the city of Woodland by FEMA and the partner agencies,” stated Ramirez.
The new SCBA fill station, compressor and related equipment would cost around $95,000. The matching funds required for Woodland’s cost share would be around $9,500. This would be the only nonreimbursable cost to the City of Woodland.
“The primary goal of the Assistance to Firefighters Grants is to enhance the safety of the public and firefighters with respect to fire-related hazards by providing direct financial assistance to eligible fire departments, nonaffiliated Emergency Medical Services organizations, and State Fire Training Academies,” Ramirez wrote to the council. “This funding is for critically needed resources to equip and train emergency personnel to recognized standards, enhance operations efficiencies, foster interoperability, and support community resilience.
Ramirez reported the department is “in critical need of a SCBA fill station. The SCBA tanks are used by firefighters while operating in areas of immediate danger to life and health such as inside a structure fire or areas that contain a toxic atmosphere. A fill station is required for the department to be able to fill the SCBA bottles with compressed air.
The Department’s current SCBA fill station is more than 25 years old and located at Fire Station 3.
“Due to the age of the unit, it is becoming increasingly unreliable and replacement parts are becoming harder to find making repair and maintenance of the unit difficult,” Ramirez reported. “Additionally, the safety cage is not rated for the pressures required to fill the new style SCBA bottles. Therefore, the current compressor is unable to fill the bottles of newly acquired SCBA equipment that is in use by many other Yolo County agencies because the unit will not generate enough pressure to fill the bottles adequately.
“In the next few years, the Woodland Fire Department will also be upgrading to these new SCBAs at which time the current fill station will be rendered obsolete.”
Ramirez noted that because the fill station is “a vital piece of equipment for fire operations, the current unit will still need to be replaced even if the grant is not awarded.
If the grant isn’t awarded, Ramirez added, the full $95,000 for the fill station will be sought in the department’s 2018-19 budget.
