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BALLSTON SPA — The Federal Emergency Management Administration (“FEMA”) informed the Village of Ballston Spa that the Ballston Spa Fire Department (“BSFD”) has been awarded an “Assistance to Firefighters Grant” (“AFG”) related to the BSFD’s application seeking $168,000 to purchase new SCBA’s along with additional air bottles. The BSFD has been purchasing such equipment on a piecemeal basis over the last few years, as the cost for such equipment has increased greatly over the past decade.
“I am thrilled and thankful to FEMA for this grant, as it allows us to address a number of concerns we have had related to the safety of our volunteer firefighters now and in the future,” said BSFD Chief Kevin Krogh, in a statement. “New SCBA’s provide a better layer of protection when our firefighters are asked to run into fire structures to save occupants and protect those structures. I cannot overstate just how important this grant is to our Department and how thankful our members are for our grant writer, Julie Burline, and our local leadership, including Mayor Frank Rossi, Jr., Deputy Mayor and BSFD Liaison Bernadette VanDeinse-Perez, and the other members of our Village’s Board of Trustees.”
Over the last 20 years, FEMA has awarded over $7.7 billion in grant funding geared toward the equipping and training of emergency personnel throughout the country. In the case of the BSFD grant award, the grant application highlighted the need for an increased quantity of new and more modernized SCBA’s and bottles needed to provide oxygen to firefighters in low-oxygen fire scenes. New SCBA bottles often include enhancements that allow a “breathe-along” function, whereby a firefighter who is experiencing trouble with their bottle (including exhaustion of oxygen supply) can utilize the bottle of a colleague with them in the fire scene until they can be brought to safety for a replacement bottle. Service life for SCBA cylinders is limited to 15 years, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation Code of Federal Regulations and Special Permits, which can be extended under certain circumstances for a limited duration.
