Wallowa FD wins $100K grant

Published 9:10 am Monday, September 28, 2015

Firefighters in Wallowa will not only be safer this year, their breathing gear will be interchangeable with other departments in the county. This is a great benefit if firefighters are called to multiple-agency fire events.

The complete upgrade of turnout gear (coats, helmets, pants, boots and gloves and breathing apparatus) is thanks to a FEMA Assistance to Firefighters grant of $104,610.

The new gear is required by the National Fire Protection Association.

“They’re requiring us to change the turnouts every 10 years and tanks every 15,” said Wallowa Fire Chief Gary Hulse. “It’s been 15 to 20 years since those tanks were exchanged.”

Additionally, said Hulse, there was a need for all departments in the county to have the same equipment so that it was interchangeable. “Upgrading that breathing equipment will take about $75,000 of the grant,” Hulse said. “There’s no way in heck we could have done this without the grant.”

Hulse’s department is run on a yearly budget of $24,000. The chief got permission from city council to hire a grant writer and go for the big grant. “I’d never written a grant,” he said. “I feel very lucky we’ve gotten the money.”

The grant money has already arrived and a call for bids is going out soon.

“We expect to be purchasing by the end of the year,” Hulse said.