Rutland Volunteer Fire Company will receive $301,884 as part of the United States Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program, and Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response program.
The funding was announced by U.S. Senators Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten E. Gillibrand on Monday.
Rutland Fire Chief Will Kalin said the funds received through the grant will be used to replace air packs and get new turnout gear.
Twenty-eight new air packs and 13 new sets of turnout gear will be able to be purchased by the departments through the grant.
Air packs provide firefighters fresh air when on the scene of an incident.
Kalin said the turnout gear will be used for people who have recently joined the department who they didn’t have gear for beforehand.
He said it’s going to make sure that “everybody is outfitted with gear because we got so many new people this year and we just didn’t have enough gear on hand or the money in the budget for the year to outfit that many people.”
Kalin said that the department received a lot of new volunteers because its coverage area expanded, which resulted in the department not having the gear on hand.
The department took over territory that was covered by the Copenhagen Fire Department, and the territory that was gained was for the town of Champion, the town of Denmark and the village of Copenhagen.
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