$142K to aid N.C. fire department's efforts

Department will purchase 18 new breathing devices
 
By Ginny Hoyle
Chapel Hill Herald

HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. — The sixth time's the charm.

After applying several times to no avail, the Orange Grove Volunteer Fire Company has received more than $142,000 this year from the Department of Homeland Security to help improve emergency response and firefighter safety.

"Chapel Hill has gotten several — but we put our name in the hat and we got it this time around," said Linwood Futrelle, president of the fire company's board of directors.

The department will use the money from the Assistance to Firefighters Grant to replace outdated self-contained breathing apparatuses with 18 new devices, purchase five new mobile 800 Mhz radios and install a vehicle exhaust system to reduce firefighters' exposure to diesel emissions.

And those improvements are an expensive endeavor — the breathing apparatuses alone cost $5,000 each, Futrelle said.

"To buy 20 you need $100,000," he said. "We're tight with money but we don't have $100,000 lying around."

Longtime Fire Chief Tommy Holmes said firefighters are excited to get new equipment — especially the new breathing apparatuses.

"We're very fortunate," Holmes said of receiving the grant. "One of our own members did most of the leg work, along with me and Linwood Futrelle. We're real pleased that we got it."

Currently, when the fire company cranks up the fire trucks' engines, carcinogenic exhaust from the diesel fuel is emitted into the air. Firefighters have been opening the doors and running a fan to try to limit fumes.

"Our guys won't have to breathe that any longer," Holmes said of the new exhaust system. "If you build a new station today, you'd have to put it in."

Linking all agencies

The 800 Mhz radio system is a statewide effort to link all agencies together for communication in the event of emergency. Orange County is scheduled to launch the system around February, Holmes said.

"It's a good system — and it's something we've been needing," Holmes said. "This 800 system is something that the state has pushed for and it's national, too. We're trying to tap into it so we'll be up with modern technology when the time comes."

The system should help local communication efforts as well, Holmes said, adding that the fire company has lost emergency communication at critical times.

"The 800s are supposed to eliminate some of that miscommunication," Holmes said. "It's scary when you get to where you can't reach communication, and we get in that boat in the western side of the district."

Without the $142,494 grant, the fire company would have had to come up with the funds for equipment a little bit at a time — and the county's tax rate might have been affected, Futrelle said.

"We're pretty tight and frugal but you can only squeeze so much juice from a grape," he said.

Orange Grove Fire Company — located west of Chapel Hill at 6800 Orange Grove Road — serves the citizens of the Cane Creek district and covers nearly 60 square miles. The fire company, which formed in 1973, has 34 volunteers and two and a half paid positions.

"We have lot of rural farm land and it's rapidly developing," Futrelle said. "Everybody's moving out there and so we're constantly recruiting folks ... and we're doing pretty well." 

Copyright 2007 The Durham Herald Co.