DeKalb Fire Dept. receives $251K grant for firefighter response equipment

DeKALB – The DeKalb Fire Department received about a quarter of a million dollars from the federal government to purchase new equipment for firefighters, according to City of DeKalb officials.

According to a Tuesday news release from the City, the fire department received $251,008.18 in grant funds from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security/FEMA Assistance to Firefighters Grant program. The City’s 10% match will contribute $25,100.82 of non-federal funds toward a total project budget of $276,109.

City officials wrote the funds will be used to purchase replacement Self-Contained Breathing Apparatuses, or SCBAs, which are “crucial to firefighters’ defense against injury or death from exposure to products of combustion and other hazardous toxins and carcinogens.”

“The Fire Department’s SCBAs have required increasingly frequent and expensive service and repairs, which have become a recurring budgetary burden,” City officials wrote. “According to the standards set forth by the National Fire Protection Association, the fire department’s SCBAs will soon reach the end of their operational lifespan.”

The purpose of the grant program is to protect the health and safety of the public and firefighter personnel against fire and fire-related hazards.