Police

$57K FEMA grant going to Manorville F.D.

PAUL SQUIRE PHOTO | Manorville firefighters work to dampen the property of Island Steel and Detaining Corp., as steel mill in Manorville, as flames burn to the north.
Manorville firefighters work to dampen the property of Island Steel and Detaining Corp. in 2012. (Credit: Paul Squire, file)

Manorville firefighters will soon be able to refill their air tanks faster, thanks to a $57,000 federal grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

U.S. Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand and Congressman Tim Bishop announced last week that the Manorville Fire District has won federal funding through the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program to purchase self-contained breathing apparatus fill stations.

“The generous approval of this grant will save an enormous amount of time and cost in sending out our Self Contained Breathing Appliance tanks for refill,” the Manorville Board of Fire Commissioners said in a statement. “This upgrade in equipment will ensure that we extinguish fires quickly and efficiently, and full cylinders [of air] will be available when multiple cylinders are needed.

“Morale will be buoyed,” the board continued, “and we will be able to ensure the safety, health and welfare of our volunteer firefighters, citizens, critical infrastructure and property at a higher degree and at less cost.”

The competitive Assistance to Firefighters grants are handed out by the Department of Homeland Security in cooperation with the Department’s U.S. Fire Administration.

“Our firefighters are our local heroes,” Mr. Schumer said. “They protect our residents and our property and these funds will allow those heroes to continue their important work of keeping the community safe.”

Ms. Gillibrand added that the fill stations will be an “important investment for Manorville firefighters, who battled the state’s seventh-largest wildfire in 2012.” Though no one was killed in that fire, the blaze destroyed more than 1,000 acres of pine barrens and several houses and properties.

Mr. Bishop said the grant will help protect those who put “their own safety in jeopardy to help their neighbors.”

“We owe it to them to help ensure they have the equipment needed to keep them as safe as possible,” he said.