Chehalis Fire Department
The Chehalis City Council approved a pair of requests on Monday that stand to benefit the Chehalis Fire Department.
Councilors voted without objection to allow Fire Chief Ken Cardinale to join the Riverside Fire Authority and Lewis County Fire District 6 in a joint application for an Assistance to Firefighter Grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The council also approved a pair of amendments to the joint response agreement between the three fire agencies, the meat of which referred to use of the new aircraft rescue engine retrofitted by the department.
Amendments to the aid agreement, originally drafted in 2015, must be ratified by all three undersigned organizations to become official. Riverside Fire Chief Mike Kytta said that all parties wanted to update the document to make sure everyone pays their fair share.
The foam used by the rescue engine to fight hydrocarbon-based fires runs about $20 per gallon. As many as 300 gallons might be used during one incident response effort.
“It’s something we can use to respond to not just airplanes, but railway incidents or an accident on the freeway involving a fuel tanker,” Cardinale said. “The foam that gets used for that is very expensive and we’re happy to help others, but we would like them to pay for the use.”
The grant application to FEMA would be for funds to replace aging self-contained breathing apparatuses used by firefighters.
Cardinale said he would purchase as many as 18 units for his department. His department would have to provide $20,000 to account for the 15 percent cash match the grant requires.
Kytta hopes to replace 108 apparatuses using money out of the department’s general fund.
The retail cost for a single pack would be around $7,000 without the FEMA grant.
“Those airpacks and cylinders we have are approaching the end of their 15-year service life,” Kytta said. “We’re hoping to offset the local costs that have to be borne in order to replace them.”
