The department plans to use budgeted money
to provide matching funds.
PARIS – Money raised by the South Paris Fireman’s Relief to buy a thermal imaging camera two years ago will be put toward a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant for assistance to firefighters.
In 2002, Fireman’s Relief raised more than $26,000 to buy a thermal imaging camera for the fire department. At a meeting Monday night, selectmen accepted the $1,556.10 left over as a gift, and voted to add the funds to the department’s uniforms and equipment budget.
The department plans to use money from its uniforms and equipment budget to provide the 10 percent matching funds required by the FEMA grant.
Although the process may seem a bit complicated, the $47,000 grant has been put to good use. Fire Chief Brad Frost said the grant, which is designated for safety, has allowed the fire department to purchase a second thermal imager. The department has also acquired six new self-contained breathing apparatus, or air packs, and complete sets of turnout gear, so that the town’s 14 firefighters are fully outfitted.
Because Paris is a county seat, the fire department has also received a weapons of mass destruction grant from the Department of Homeland Security. The $26,000 grant was used to improve the town’s search and rescue capabilities.
Besides providing the fire and police departments with radios, the money was used to purchase four stabilizing bars used to secure an unstable object if a rescuer is needed to climb onto or under it. Frost said the grant also allowed the fire department to obtain a 92-ton set of airbags. When inflated, he said, the air bags are capable of lifting an object as large as the department’s ladder truck.
In other business, the selectmen voted to sell a 1985 Chevrolet truck once used as a water truck by the fire department. The town had asked for bids on the truck at a minimum bid of $1,000, but received none. They decided to accept an offer of $300, noting that the truck had been given to the town at no cost and was no longer of any use to the fire department.
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