Recently Forest Grove Fire & Rescue was the recipient of some very good news from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security when we were informed that we had been awarded a FEMA Assistance to Firefighters Grant for Firefighter Operations and Safety. This $425,000 grant will allow us to purchase a live fire training simulator that we will be able use here in Forest Grove to train our career and volunteer firefighters as well as to share regionally with our neighbors to train other firefighters from all over western Washington County.
Live fire training is vitally important for us to maintain high levels of training and readiness for our crews. On average we bring on 12 new volunteer firefighters each year and these new recruits require significant amounts of initial training before we can allow them to respond to emergencies on our engines. Right now in order to put our firefighters through any live fire training we either wait for someone in the community to donate a home that we can burn, or we have to travel outside the area to a live fire training center. To put this in perspective, last week we teamed with our neighbors in Cornelius and traveled to the MERTS Center at Clatsop Community College near Astoria so that we could make this kind of training happen. In the cases where people donate homes for us to practice in, the structure has to pass a very strict safety criteria before we can use them. All of this can make it quite difficult for us to coordinate safe, timely, and effective live fire training for our firefighters.
FEMA will pick up 90% of the grant, with our share at ten percent ($42,500). Still, without the support of this grant it is likely that we would not have been able to fund the total cost of this project to improve our training and safety on our own. We are in the process of evaluating the simulators that are available and gathering information so that we can purchase the equipment that best suits our needs. It is our goal to purchase the equipment somtime this summer and we estimate that it will take 8 to 9 months for the vendor to complete the project and have it up and running sometime in early 2012.
Since 2003 Forest Grove Fire & Rescue alone has recieved $1,154,298 in grants to support our operations. These grants have helped us update our protective equipment for our firefighters, replaced our breathing air compressor, purchased 11,650 feet of fire hose, improved our communication ability with new radios and satellite phones, provided for training on confined space rescue, and so much more. Some of these grants have required us to match a percentage of the funds that have been granted, since 2003 our total share has been $103,699.
Here is a break down of our history with grants.
- 2003 FEMA Grant $119,970 to replace breathing air compressor and 20 self contained breathing apparatus (SCBA)
- 2003 State of Oregon Domestic Preparedness Grant for Hazardous materials response equipment
- 2005 FEMA Grant $158,844 replacing 65 sets of firefighter protective clothing
- 2005 FEMA Grant $218,290 to standerdize SCBA used on west end of county (this was a million dollar grant that was shared by Hillsboro, Washington County District #2, Cornelius, Banks, and FGF&R)
- 2005 State Homeland Security Program $2,000 to train firefighters on weapons of mass destruction
- 2005 Urban Areas Security Initiative $20,000 for Mobile Data Terminals (MDT's) - computers in our engines
- 2007 FEMA Grant $141,666 to replace 11,650 feet of fire hose. This was a shared grant between Gaston, Banks, and FGF&R that allowed us to standerdize our fire hose sizes and types.
- 2008 Oregon Office of Emergency Management $108,000 to update and replace radios and MDT's
- 2009 Volunteer Fire Assitant Grant $2,850 to update our fire shelters that are used on wildfires to protect firefighters
- 2010 Oregon Office of Emergency Management $43,900 to provide MDT's, and VHF radios for statewide communication
- 2010 Local Emergency Planning Grant $5,625 to provide confinded space training to our staff and volunteers
- 2010 Oregon Office of Emergency Management Grant $29,000 to purchase a backup power generator for Station 7 in Gales Creek, and to purchase satellite phones for emergency communication
- 2011 FEMA Grant $382,500 for live fire training simulator
