Fire district receives another grant

Fire Chief Tay Robertson of the Sisters-Camp Sherman Rural Fire Protection District has received confirmation that a $50,400 federal grant has been awarded the fire district to help fund the purchase of new fire equipment. Announcement of the grant came from Rep. Greg Walden's office last week.

The source of the grant is the Department of Homeland Security's Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program. The program is designed to help local fire agencies to be better prepared and equipped for both normal emergency services and for any potential acts of terrorism.

In announcing the new grant, Rep. Walden stated that the federal program clearly recognizes the importance of strong firefighting operations in Central Oregon, especially where there is a unique mix of urban and rural communities.

"We're real excited about this grant," said Robertson. "We applied for the grant last spring and it is actually the third grant that we have been fortunate to have received in the past year. While they reduced the amount of our original request from $73,000 to $50,400, our match will raise the amount to $56,000 and make us better prepared to respond to the public, particularly in (Camp Sherman)."

Robertson said that a number of critical pieces of equipment can now be purchased and will allow the Camp Sherman station to have resources now available only in Sisters. The equipment includes a defibrillator to assist heart attack victims and a thermal imaging camera to allow firefighters to find people and hot spots inside smoke-filled burning buildings.

Other equipment to be purchased includes 50 new goggles for eye protection during wildland firefighting and 39 additional breathing apparatus facemasks.

This equipment will provide every firefighter in the district with his or her own gear.

"One of the other big issues that we have had is needing equipment to rescue firefighters," Robertson said. "It's hard to do a rescue when the rescuer needs rescuing. One of the things that we were lacking is what we call a Rapid Intervention Team pack that allows us to bring air to a trapped firefighter or victim and other tools to help extricate the person. We had only one in the entire department and this grant will fund the purchase of another three packs."

Items not funded in the district's grant request included a voice communication system that amplifies the voice, a more costly thermal-imaging device and additional breathing apparatuses. Future grants requests may fund these, Robertson said.

Robertson added that the district is currently benefiting from two other grants. One was for over $100,000 to improve fire apparatus and another grant recently received will improve the district's communications system. A new radio repeater at a new location will allow improved communications to the Camp Sherman area and cross-band radios to help the district communicate with other emergency service agencies.

"Camp Sherman is there pretty much on their own and these grants with give them needed equipment and the district an improved radio system," Robertson said. "Black Butte keeps us from having effective communications all of the time, so we will be moving our radio repeater from Henkle Butte to Fivemile Butte near Black Butte Ranch. We will also be buying a new brush truck for the Camp Sherman station from district funds that will allow faster response to fires."

Robertson stated that the Camp Sherman area has been the first priority for additional equipment.

Future grants will address the Squaw Creek station northeast of Sisters.

The Sisters-Camp Sherman RFPD provides fire protection to a 250-square-mile area with a yearlong population of about 4,000.

That population increases to from 10,000 to 20,000 during the summer.