$400,000 in federal funding for Berlin Fire Fighters’ Air Packs

BERLIN, Md. – The Berlin Fire Company will be able to modernize their equipment, thanks to $400,000 in federal funding. how these improvements will help keep firefighters safer – when facing danger. Eric Smothers, President of the Maryland State Firemen’s Association, cannot stress enough how these improvements will help keep firefighters safe when facing danger.

“That is your lifeline when going into a (Immediate Dangerous to Life or Health) IDLH environment a gaseous environment that you cannot see.”

Eric Smothers is the President of the Maryland State Firemen’s Association – and represents over 300 fire departments across Maryland. He says the current bottles at the Berlin Fire Department only have an air capacity of thirty minutes, but the new air packs will give firefighters more time to save lives.

“The ones that they have recently purchased will give them extra time inside,” Smothers said. ‘They are forty-five minute bottles.”

“Upgrading to the latest standard, improves the safety of our fire and EMS personnel.”

Smothers says it is almost impossible to see when the firefighters are in a house fire.

This additional fifteen minutes can be the difference between life and death for the people in jeopardy or the fire fighters themselves.

“You can’t see your hand in front of your face in the smoky environment when you’re fighting a fire.”

Pressurization of the air packs is another resource that is out of date for the Berlin Fire Company.
That $400,000 will also modernize them.

“It allows them to stay in their station when they come back for a call to fill their bottles, their air packs so they do not have to drive twenty or thirty minutes down the road to the next fire station,” Smothers said. “They can stay in their local area.”

Senator Van Hollen says these federal grants that help modernize the out of date equipment are potentially coming to an end, but lawmakers are fighting to change that.

“We are working hard right now to extend the authorization of the federal programs by another 10 years,” U.S. Senator Van Hollen said. “If you travel through our country and go to our fire stations you will find a lot of them are in bad need of repair and in many cases, repairs that are needed to keep our firefighters safe.”

Senator Van Hollen says over 58% of fire stations nationally are in desperate need of repair, including the Berlin Fire Company. The senator is working to pass the Fire Station Act, which would help modernize fire facilities across Maryland.