Ottawa Fire Department receives $272,857 grant for air packs

Through the work of U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Naperville, Ottawa firefighters can breathe a little easier, both literally and figuratively.

The city has received a grant worth $272,857 through the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program, which provides funding for critically needed resources to equip and train emergency personnel. Underwood, a ranking member of the House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee, advocates for local fire departments and wrote a letter of support to Ottawa’s application for the funds.

We actually applied for this grant last year and didn’t get it. This year, [we] applied again and got it, so it will replace a massive cost the city would have had to endure.”

—  Brian Bressner, Ottawa fire chief

In Ottawa’s case, Commissioner of Public Health and Safety Tom Ganiere said, the funds will be used to purchase 36 self-contained breathing apparatus air packs used to sustain firefighters in hazardous and toxic conditions.

Ganiere said the funds will cover almost 95% of the cost of those packs that will be available to 36 of the 39 emergency medical services personnel on the Ottawa staff.

“That’s almost a new air pack for every firefighter we have,” Ganiere said. “Other than a 100% grant, this is the next best thing.

“When I first started on the fire department years ago, air packs were about $1,000 a piece, so now, if you do the math with the grant and the number of packs we can get, you can see that the cost has gone up just a bit (to $7,579.36). … Our firefighters deserve the best we can give them.”

Ottawa Fire Chief Brian Bressner said the air packs are in two basic parts: the frame and the air bottle. According to National Fire Protection Association standards, the latter of those needed to be reconditioned every five years and replaced every 15 years.

The current packs in use by the department were bought 14 years ago and would have needed to be replaced by next August.

“We actually applied for this grant last year and didn’t get it,” Bressner said. “This year, [we] applied again and got it, so it will replace a massive cost the city would have had to endure. Now we don’t have to worry about that. … Anytime you can get a windfall like that, you’re going to take it.”

Also in the 14th Congressional District, the city of Bolingbrook received $90,909 in similar funds through the program.