$245,000 Fema grant awarded to Lakeside Fire Department

Fire Chief Ted Ross along with Deputy Chief Doug Briedenthal received word today through Congressman DeFazio’s office that the Lakeside Rural Fire Protection District has been awarded a $245,000 Assistance Firefighter FEMA Grant.

With the required matching funds previously budgeted by the district, this total will be brought to approximately $260,000.

The grant will be used to replace the “in some instances decades old” safety gear in use by the department’s volunteer firefighters.

Items on the replacement list include personal protective equipment or PPE’s such as structure firefighting jackets and pants known as turnouts or bunker gear, and helmets and boots that meet OSHA standards. In order to maintain these items, a washer-extractor and drying unit will also be purchased.

Along with the personal gear, new self contained breathing apparatus or SCBA’s are slated to be replaced.  This will allow Lakeside Fire to fulfill requirements that each firefighter have an individual mask with a related seal test.  Along with these SCBA’s, a new air bottle fill station will be purchased.  Currently Lakeside’s empty air bottles are being refilled by the Charleston Fire District with the associated drive time and fuel expenditure.

$14,000 Oregon Division Forestry grant

Lakeside Fire earlier this month also received another grant from the Oregon Division of Forestry in the amount of $14,400.  This grant will be used to purchase wildland firefighting clothing including:

♦ Nomex pants and shirts

♦ Fire-shelters

♦ Gloves

♦ Helmets

Both of these grants were written by Deputy Chief Breidenthal and their outcome will enable Lakeside Fire to continue providing a first-class fire, rescue, and medical response. Lakeside’s total fire budget runs in the area of $122,000 a year.  This amount is barely enough to purchase basic medical supplies and cover operating costs on the apparatus.

Without these grants and the backing of the citizens of Lakeside, whose votes for bond measures allow fire trucks to be replaced, it would be difficult to continue to provide the level of service we are currently providing.

Although these grants are a boost to our Fire District they are just a patch correcting severely outdated safety equipment.  This is a one time fix.  The District is looking into ways to make permanent the necessary changes to our safety programs without placing any more burdens on the residents of our Fire District.

Deputy Chief Breidenthal would love to take any comments residents have to help correct our current budgetary shortfalls.  You may e-mail him at breidenthal@charter.net with your comments or ideas.

Chief Ted Ross and the Lakeside District’s volunteers would like to thank everybody associated with this process of helping us, provide you, with the best service possible.

Lakeside Fire Operations Chief

Rodney L. Schilling