Cape fire department gets $350,000 grant from Homeland Security

The Cape Girardeau Fire Department has been awarded a grant of $349,003 from the Department of Homeland Security under a federal grant program for firefighters.

The money will be used to buy firefighting and rescue equipment and to provide for extensive technical rescue training.

Fire chief Rick Ennis said that $200,779 will be used to replace breathing masks and $19,000 will replace portable communications equipment.

Earlier this month, the city received a grant of $188,000; included in that amount was money for portable radios for both the police and fire departments.

"This $19,000 will add to that and allow us to buy even more radios than we had previously planned," Ennis said. "It will allow us to buy several radios, but still not all the radios we need."

In addition to the equipment the fire department will use on a routine basis, the grant also includes $52,724 to buy rescue tools and equipment and $76,500 for advanced rescue training.

Ennis said the department is using the grants to supplement money that is expected to come in at the first of the year from the recently approved city sales tax. There is such a need for equipment, he said, that the grants are necessary to help the department catch up on buying equipment. Ennis said he is currently working on another grant application.

Ennis said the money for advanced training will allow the fire department to bring in outside instructors to teach a series of specialized rescue procedures over the course of a year. The chief said he plans to make available classes where firefighters can become certified in auto extrication techniques and river rescue, which they frequently are called on to provide. They will also learn confined space rescue, in the event of a trench collapse and collapsed building rescue.

"We do those less frequently," Ennis said. "A building collapse could be created by a terrorist attack, an earthquake or a tornado, or due to a fire that could possibly trap a civilian or a firefighter."

Under the terms of the grant, the city will provide 10 percent in matching funds.

lredeffer@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160