ATHOL — The Fire Department has landed a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) which will help pay for a variety of personal protective equipment (PPE) for firefighter/EMTs. The grant totals nearly $16,000.
Guarnera said some of the protective equipment purchased is likely unfamiliar to the general public.
“We have new SCBAs (self-contained breathing apparatus) that we got with a grant last year,” he explained, “and there’s an adapter that goes onto the Scott SCBA masks that you can put a cartridge on, and that cartridge helps protect from hazardous materials, it’s good for COVID, it can be good for anything. So, that’s one thing we bought.
“Another is PAPRs (powered air purifying respirators). Again, they work with the Scott masks, but you’re breathing air that’s filtered through cartridges, also. We didn’t have any and were very much in need of those for both hazardous materials and biological and viral/bacteriological problems, which would be COVID-related.”
Guarnera said he was also able to use the grant to purchase 1,600 N95 masks.
“I was also able to get half-face pieces,” he added, “so that a firefighter doesn’t have to wear a whole SCBA mask; they can use the half-face piece with the filter, also. It’s a lot lighter on their faces, both for hazardous materials and something like COVID.”
Finally, said the chief, he was able to use some of the funds toward the purchase of an electrostatic sprayer “so we can decontaminate the ambulance in the station.”
Guarnera said the grant was critical to securing the items for his team.
“This is equipment we did need, and we did not have the money to buy it,” he said.
While some of the PPE is disposable, some is not.
“The face masks are for always — you just have to decontaminate them. The filters are for one-time use. But I did order 200 of the filters that go on the mask and another two- or 300 that go on the face piece. And those are predominantly for hazardous materials, but can be used for COVID as need be. So, if indeed we run out of the masks that we have — the N95s — we can use these masks, also.
“But hazardous materials is a big issue with this town, as far as having the trains coming through here, and having Route 2 with trucking moving up and down the highway. It’s definitely a problem.”
Guarnera explained that the FEMA AFG-S (Assistance to Firefighters Grant – Supplemental) is among the most competitive grants of its kind. Applications are open to every fire department in the United States and its territories.
“So,” Guarnera concluded, “with this grant, we were able to kind of kill two bird with one stone — both the COVID side and the hazmat side.”
Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com
