The department received a timely boost in applying for the money.
OTISFIELD – The fire department recently received a grant for more than $53,000.
And for a department whose total yearly budget is $78,000 this year, the grant represents no small piece of change.
Fire Chief Garry Dyer is elated.
He says all the credit for the grant goes to Steve Coombs, a recent graduate of Southern Maine Technical College who wrote it. Coombs started working for Dyer, who owns Dyer’s Camp and Cottage Service, in the summer and part-time while attending school.
“I met him through my next-door neighbor, and Steve’s wife-to-be lives in Otisfield,” Dyer said. “He joined the fire department and had to write a grant as part of a class.
“I don’t know what grade he got in class, but I give him an A-plus-plus,” he said.
The grant was made possible through the Federal Emergency Management Agency division of Homeland Security, which has doled out more than $108 million to more than 1,700 fire departments in the United States.
The Otisfield Fire Department was one of seven in Maine to receive money in this round of funding. Earlier this year, Stoneham received funds to purchase a truck and Mexico got money to purchase equipment.
Dyer said the grant was written to purchase 25 new sets of turnout gear and 25 hand-held radios.
The turnout gear includes coats, boots, helmets, gloves and other personal protection gear.
Dyer said he also plans to get a positive pressure ventilation fan, which is used to clear out smoky areas of a building.
“We have to make sure our firemen have up-to-date and proper gear for their safety,” Dyer said. “Some of our gear was in the neighborhood of 15 years old.”
He said the lifespan of the gear depends on how much it’s used.
Dyer, who has been chief for 19 years and in the department for 30 years, said this is the first grant the department ever received.
He said the success in getting this grant has encouraged him to apply for more.
But he will probably be without the assistance of Coombs, who began as a full-time firefighter in Rumford.
“We were good to have him for the time we had him,” Dyer said.
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