GUILFORD – The Guilford Fire Department Emergency Squad recently took delivery of a new ambulance. The 2006 Ford F450 was purchased from Exceptional Emergency Vehicles and went into service on Feb. 6. The 15 members of the Guilford Emergency Squad include Advanced Life Support and Basic Life Support emergency Medical Technicians as well as three drivers.
New NYS Emergency Service protocols require certain types of call responses to transport to pre-designated hospitals such as Area Trauma Centers such as Wilson Memorial Regional Medical Center in Binghamton or the burn center at University Hospital SUNY Health Science Center. The ambulance which was replaced served the Guilford Emergency Squads response area well for 15 years, and although it continued to respond, needed upgrading to continue serving the community.
The Guilford Fire Department has recently completed a grant it received from the Assistance to Firefighters Grants Operations and Firefighter Safety Program. The Assistance to Firefighters Grants program is designed to meet the firefighting and emergency response needs of fire departments and emergency medical services organizations. The Assistance to Firefighters Grants program has helped firefighters and other first responders to obtain critically needed equipment, protective gear, emergency vehicles, training, and other resources needed to protect the public and emergency personnel from fire and related hazards. The National Preparedness Directorate in the Federal Emergency Management Agency administers the grants in cooperation with the U.S. Fire Administration
The Guilford Fire Department purchased equipment that allows for a effective response to emergencies and protects responding personnel in compliance with current NFPA standards. With grant money and a 5% local matching share the Guilford Fire Department was able to purchase the following:
• 35 sets of firefighter Personal Protective Equipment and 1 set of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for EMS personnel, 35 Motorola Minitor V pagers, 14 Motorola Ht 1250 Portable radios and 10 complete SCBA (air packs) with voice amplification face pieces, spare face pieces/voice amplification/spare cylinders.
The acquisition of 35 sets of firefighter PPE and 1 set of EMS purchased through AFG funding has completely outfitted our active Firefighters The radios and pagers had a significant positive impact on response and on-scene communications. Interior firefighters have communication with each other and incident command due to voice amplification and effective radios. Prior to this there was no voice amplification and the older handheld radios were insufficient in number and unreliable.
The SCBA is lighter in weight, equipped with Heads Up Display and provision for buddy breathing. This is safer for firefighters as well as reducing fatigue. This has been evidenced through our own experience as well as through mutual aid response to a neighboring department.
The Guilford Fire Department (GFD) extended grant funding to include a Super Vac Rescue Saw, ten self rescue Back Buddy Escape mounted on all Scott air pack harnesses so escape rope is always available to interior firefighters, 1- ST60 ProPlus thermometer, 1-M40 gas detector and 15 Streamlight LED Flashlight, Helmet Lighting Kits.
These additions to the Guilford Fire Departments Fire Fighter Safety initiative will have a direct impact on safety, accountability and success of operations.
Guilford Fire Department can now alert responders, provide them with NFPA compliant protective gear, equip them to safely respond, size up and contain the incident, thereby protecting Guilford neighboring communities. Without the AFG award, the GFD would have not been able to fund a project of this magnitude.