The Ravalli County Fire Council recently received a $500,000 grant to purchase new Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) for the Florence, Stevensville, Victor, Corvallis and Pinesdale volunteer fire departments. The Hamilton City Council at its last meeting decided to fork up $127,739 to get an identical set of SCBAs for the Hamilton Volunteer Fire Department.
Fire Chief Brad Mohn asked the Council to consider moving up the replacement schedule for their own SCBAs by two and a half years and replace them now. He said the company had made an offer to sell the equipment at the same price it was giving the other fire departments in their bulk deal. Mohn said this would be a savings of about $30,000 compared to what they would have to pay in two and half years if they waited. Hamilton’s SCBAs are close to 13 years into their 15-year replacement schedule. The new SCBAs use a re-chargeable battery which would save approximately $500 a year in battery purchases.
The new masks have infrared capability to allow the firefighters in a smoke-filled room to detect hot spots and to distinguish humans. He said the breathing apparatus has an emergency feature that allows the user to share air with another mask, a great safety measure if a firefighter should run out of air. He said purchasing these SCBAs now and having identical masks would be a great feature when working with other departments in calls for mutual aid.
The plan is to purchase 17 packs and 34 bottles, each with five minutes-worth of air. Mohn said the money was in the capital improvement funds but the expense was not budgeted for, so an amendment to the budget was needed for the department to make the purchase. He said the Hamilton Rural Fire Department was also planning to get 12 packs.