| * Please indicate which of these Target Capabilities your request outlined in this application will satisfy. Check all that apply: | |
| Responder Safety and Health Firefighting Operations/Support Hazardous Materials Response Search and Rescue Emergency Medical Services |
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| * Please provide your narrative statement in the space provided below. Include in your narrative, details regarding (1) your project’s description and budget, (2) your organization’s financial need, (3) the benefit to be derived from the cost of your project, and (4) how the activities requested in your application will help your organization’s daily operations and how this grant will protect life and property. | |
| Project Description and Budget The XXX Fire Department is located in XXX, Minnesota in XXX County, about XXX miles east of XXXX. The XXX primary response area consists of residential homes, a large and growing business sector, farming operations, and wild lands and open areas. The XXX Fire Department serves a primary response area of more than 180 square miles. According to the 2000 census, the department serves a population of nearly 3,800 people living in approximately 1613 households. Our department is requesting $104,525 in funding from the Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) program. It will be used for the purchase of 9 self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) with lightweight composite cylinders. Additionally, 13 face pieces are requested. With these purchases, 100% of our active duty personnel will be fully equipped with upgraded turnout gear and air packs with PASS. This application also includes a compressor/cascade/fill station for filling the tanks. Our request for this equipment is consistent with the established priorities of the Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) program. Because of the importance of this project to the XXX Fire Department (HFD), the Department hereby agrees to provide a 10% match to federal funds. This is a voluntary increase from the required 5% local match, which is standard for small communities applying to the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program (AFGP). Thus, if this grant proposal is successful the federal and non-federal share will be as follows: Project total = $104,525 5% Required Applicant Share = 5,226 Additional Applicant Share = 5,224 Federal share ---------- $94,075 The XXX Fire Department seeks this federal funding to permit our local Fire Department to adequately equip our volunteers. Funds will be used to purchase the following equipment: Cascade/Compressor/Fill Station 1 @ $39,000 = $39,000 SCBA equipment 9 @ 6,500 = 58,500 Extra face pieces 13 @ 500 = 6,500 Grant writing fee = 525 Total Project Cost = $104,525 This proposal requests purchase of OSHA 1910.134 and NFPA 1981 compliant self contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) equipment to outfit 9 firefighters currently using sub-standard, obsolete, non-complying SCBA’s. All of our current non-complying units are at least a dozen years old, and several are older. The masks to be purchased will have heads-up displays (an important safety feature for our firefighters), and will replace obsolete masks currently being used. Fire Chief XXX notes that 100% of the active duty personnel (number who respond to the average fire call) will have SCBA equipment after purchase of these units. He also notes that by purchasing these nine units, he can utilize teams of firefighters in fire situations: two teams fighting the fire and one in reserve in case of emergency. The XXX Fire Department has had calls in recent years where suspected methamphetamine labs may have been involved. Such situations are becoming all too common in rural areas. In these situations, SCBA are critical protective equipment. Air packs are only effective if they are filled and ready to use. The compressor/cascade/fill station will allow us to leave the fire hall with SCBA’s ready to go, and to maintain our ready status between calls. Also, with planned interoperability within our mutual aid group, we would have the capability to fill cylinders for all our neighboring fire department partners. Training for proper use of this gear is important. OSHA statue 1910.156 (c)( 1) requires the employer to provide training and education for all fire brigade members commensurate with those duties and functions that fire brigade members are expected to perform. This training and education shall be provided to fire brigade members before they perform fire brigade emergency activities. We have a good working relationship with certified representatives of the XXX Technical College, and their campuse is nearby. These people have strong training backgrounds in equipment and techniques necessary to proper use of firefighter equipment. We will use their expertise to ensure our firefighters are well trained and certified in proper use of all equipment purchased. In addition, manufacturer’s representatives will provide more basic training. Another goal of our department is to ensure interoperability and compatibility with departments in our mutual aid group, consisting of ten departments and 220 firefighters across the region. In discussion with these departments, they are confident that our department’s plans will boost the overall strength of response when we work together to fight fires; it will also allow for more efficient training opportunities. We have their full support. Financial Need Our principal city is XXX, MN. The following is a snapshot of the City’s expenditures on 12/31/05: Economic Development = $20,686 Park Department = 121,409 Street Department = 227,726 HERT = 20,495 Fire Department Operations = 16,662 Fire Truck fund = 55,304 Police Department = 200,848 Attorney/City Admin/Council/Gen.Gov. = 256,266 All other = 50,040 TOTAL = $969,436 Locally, the city has considerable commitments to other uses, and cannot afford more funding for fire department equipment and personal protective equipment. The City of XXX devoted $16,662 in operating costs to the fire department (with township partners, it was a total of $33,324), and is setting aside funds toward the purchase of a new pumper some day. The City’s funds are stretched thin across other vital needs in recent years, including a $3 million expansion of local infrastructure, and a 46 block, $4.5 million replacement of 50-year old infrastructure, being completed this year. Special tax assessments will strap local taxpayers for 20 years on this project. Consequently, without assistance from the AFG program, there are no extra funds to make major improvements to fire department gear. There are just no financial corners to cut to pay for this equipment locally. The following describes the Fire Department budget for 2007, which is down somewhat from 2006: Salary/Benefit/Training/Travel Expense = $8,050 Workers' Comp = 2,300 Fuel & Supplies = 3,725 Repairs = 1,200 Equipment = 2,200 Insurance = 4,400 Building = 8,146 Total = $30,021 Our local area is not wealthy. The 2000 Census found that the median household income for our area is only $35,600. This is less than 75% of Minnesota’s state median household income. Cost/Benefit The need for all these items is urgent. They will protect our firefighters, make a dangerous job safer, and greatly improve our ability to protect the community we serve. Recently our department conducted a thorough a risk assessment, examining everything associated with our current mission, including equipment, training, vehicles, personnel and roster, personal protective gear, and other issues. We rated every element of what we do, and what we do it with. Upon completion of this risk assessment, we found our greatest risk is that our compressor/fill station, the most obsolete item in the fire hall. In addition, we felt that our SCBA’s urgently need to be upgraded. The new SCBA’s will also be NFPA 1981 and OHSA 1910.134 compliant with an integrated PASS device, heads-up display (HUD). It is a health and safety matter for our department, as well. Without the equipment to do the job, our firefighters will be at risk in certain situations. Minnesota statute 182.653 Subd. 2 states that each employer shall furnish to its employees conditions of employment and a place of employment free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious injury or harm to its employees. If we do not have the appropriate equipment to fight fires, then we are not providing a safe working environment for our firefighters, and are non-compliant with state statute. Much of our current SCBA is old and non-compliant. By purchasing nine new fully-compliant SCBA’s, we will reach a level of having 100% of our active duty firefighters fully equipped with SCBA’s. All air packs will utilize the lightweight composite cylinders, instead of the bulky, heavy ones in our current inventory. Our current compressor for filling cylinders is an army surplus model which is 50 years old, and is not user friendly. The unit fills only one bottle at a time and is difficult to run, and only one of our firefighters can operate it. This compressor must be operated outdoors, which makes matters difficult in cold weather conditions. It is so loud to operate that ear protection must be worn. Other elements of this mechanism are dangerous for the operator, too. Our current compressor is really not functional at this time. It is likely not fixable, either. Conversely, the new system we would like to purchase can be used anywhere, although our plan is to use it as a fixed station in the fire hall. It will fill multiple bottles at once. It will have state-of-the-art safety features. It will fill 3 cylinders at a time. Our current compressor system is not equipped with a CO monitoring system, but the new one will be. Our primary response area has a large number of critical structures. In recent years, we have doubled the size of the local school building. There is a large complex of liquid petroleum tanks in our area, served by a pipeline. One of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe main railroad lines runs through our response area, and through the city of XXX. We estimate 75 trains pass through our primary response area per day. US Highway XXX, which passes through our primary response area, is a major east-west route for truck traffic. We protect an anhydrous ammonia tank farm. An accident or attack on any of these facilities could result in catastrophic conditions throughout the area. Certainly, it would be an immediate crisis for the XXX Fire Department. It requires us to be better prepared than our current equipment allows us to be, especially if hazardous materials are involved, where air packs are essential. Taken in conjunction with the earlier discussion of residential growth, it is clear that our responsibilities as a fire department are growing. This new equipment will allow the department to better respond to ALL these hazards in the most effective and cost-efficient manner possible. We have discussed our proposed new equipment with neighboring departments to ensure interoperability. For example, our SCBA cylinders will be compatible with these departments, so that they can be interchanged in emergencies. Filling cylinders will be efficient with the new compressor/cascade/fill station equipment, since interoperability has been worked out ahead of time with the area fire chiefs. Area departments feel our grant request implements the regional interoperability plan, consistent with the region’s firefighting needs. The cost-benefit analysis of poorly equipped firefighters is clear. Even one injury or fatality among the Department’s personnel, caused by deficient air packs would be extensive and unacceptable. The cost to that firefighter’s family, to the Department in terms of the loss of a trained firefighter, and to the community would be too great a price to pay. It is certainly a large multiple of the cost of SCBA needed to ensure each member of the Department is safely and adequately equipped to fight a fire. If a civilian is hurt because we lacked equipment to prevent it, we would be failing in our work. Without the gear requested in this grant, the health and safety of our firefighters and the general public is at risk. We have identified a gap between having firefighters confident they are well protected, and firefighters who are tentative because they cannot depend on their gear. That gap will be filled with the SCBA and fill station purchased through this grant. Our department had about 60 calls last year. Although a high number for an area of our size, it is not indicative of recent years, which were higher. Even so, we feel that we can spread the benefit of Assistance to Firefighter Grant dollars to many people on a per capita basis. Statement of Effect On a day-to-day, fire-to-fire basis, the equipment we are requesting is a frequently used item in our inventory. We train with it, even when we don’t pull the trucks out of the fire hall. Every time we go out on a call, our air packs go with us. It must be up to grade for our firefighters to be comfortable in their role. During the next several years, we will track our department’s use of the new equipment being purchased as a result of this grant. We are convinced that operational outcomes will improve, firefighters will be safer, and the civilian population better protected, making this purchase worthwhile. Safety for the local civilian population is an important objective for us, and will be improved if this grant is approved. Almost 40% of the residents in our primary response area are either children or seniors 65 years of age and older, according to the 2000 Census. These groups are at especially great risk when fires occur. The thoroughness of our response and the adequacy of our equipment are critical to protecting these vulnerable groups. With the purchases outlined in this application, we will be well positioned to provide excellent firefighting capabilities. Last year, we made 26 mutual aid calls to our neighboring departments, so interoperability is important. Those departments’ ability to depend on us is critical, and it will be measurably stronger. When we meet with those departments, we routinely talk about how we will handle mutual aid firefighting. At present, our lack of up-to-date equipment makes this department less effective. Our inability to operate as a full member of the mutual aid team is a drawback to all the fire departments in our mutual aid group. With NFPA compliant SCBA gear, and the means to quickly refill our air packs and those of our mutual aid partners, interoperability issues with neighboring departments will be resolved. |
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