The Fire Department reported in early July that it had been successful in being awarded three Assistance to Firefighter’s Grants, administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). These grants included a replacement ladder truck, replacement breathing apparatus and automated chest compression devices.
 
The Department is happy to report that it has also been awarded two California Homeland Security grants. The first being a USAR Structural Lift Bag System. This lift bag system is comprised of an assortment of air bags and controls with a 250 ton lifting capacity and is designed to fit many different types of scenarios after a large scale incident. These lifting bags have the ability to lift parking structures, soft story buildings and seismically unsound structures to list a few. The value of this grant is $41,515 with no match funding required.
The second grant is a Rescue Strut System comprised of adjustable air shoring brackets and rails that can be quickly deployed for wall, roof, or trench supports when time is of the essence and wood stabilization systems, which are very time consuming to construct, are being fabricated. The value of this grant is $38,413 with no match funding required.

This has been quite a year for the Fire Department in the area of grants. Five grant applications were submitted and all five were awarded for a total of $1,161,672 in grant funds.