- May 2, 2024
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The department is currently two national standards cycles behind, according to Fire Chief Bob Mandarino.
BY WAYNE GRANT | STAFF WRITER
As technology marches on, as does emergency equipment, and the Ormond Beach Fire Department is taking steps to keep up.
The Ormond Beach City Commission gave approval at its regular meeting Tuesday for the department to apply for a grant to update self-contained breathing apparatus equipment. Used when entering burning buildings, the equipment protects firefighters from smoke and burning chemicals.
The cost of the replacement will be $194,000, with a grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security paying $174,600 and the city paying 10%, or $19,400.
Fire Chief Bob Mandarino said the department is currently equipped with SCBA equipment, but they need to replace it with the current standards for safety reasons and also for compatibility with other fire departments.
“We have mutual aid agreements with Flagler County and all municipalities in Volusia County,” he said. “We need to be able in interchange equipment when on a scene.”
The new equipment includes air tanks and face pieces with communication capabilities. New safety features include an improved readout in the mask that shows how much air is left in the tank and a single battery pack to power all of the separate devices.
“This allows a firefighter to check power on just one battery instead of all the separate batteries,” Mandarino said.
Previous improvements have included a hose that allows a firefighter to assist another firefighter with a broken breathing apparatus and an alarm that sounds if a firefighter is immobile for a certain amount of time.
Firefighters are able to communicate with each other when wearing the equipment. A future improvement being developed, Mandarino said, is a locator that will allow a supervisor with a module to track the movements of all of the firefighters in a structure.
Mandarino said that a fire department must be two cycles behind in standards, set by the National Fire Protection Agency, to apply for the grant. The Ormond Beach fire department was last up-to-date in 2005. A new standard came along in 2007 and the agency has just announced new standards for 2013, which will put Ormond Beach two cycles behind.
Mandarino said the department will know next summer if it has been approved for the grant.
“It’s not automatic,” he said. “They only have so much money and there are a lot of applicants.”
He said it took three submittals over a three-year period to get a grant for larger diameter hoses for the fire trucks.
