New fire packs are being used by Hastings Fire and Rescue. (City of Hastings, Courtesy)
HASTINGS — Hastings Fire and Rescue personnel now have the latest in respiratory protection. The department recently placed 28 new SCBA (Self Contained Breathing Apparatus) and three new RIT (Rapid Intervention Team) packs into service.
FF/PM Ryan Miller was the lead for the project and took the department through vendor demonstrations, budget proposals, ordering and finally in-service training.
“Ryan owned this project from start to finish, and really helped us identify the best product for the firefighters at the best value for the citizens,” Hastings Fire and Rescue Chief Brad Starling said.
Hastings Fire and Rescue started the process two years ago and made the order a year ago. The packs took a year to be delivered.
“This process took close to two years from the start to putting the packs into service,” Miller said. “Needless to say, there is a lot of excitement among the department to have new equipment that is safer and more reliable. We cannot thank the city council and the community we serve enough for providing us new equipment that allows us to do our job more effectively.”
The Scott X3 Pro packs meet the latest safety standards and replace units that were about 20 years old. They were purchased with a combination of hazardous materials grants and American Rescue Plan Act funding.
Following a $15,000 trade-in for previous equipment, the new equipment cost $248,000. Of that amount, $50,000 came from a federal HAZMAT grant for respiratory protection. The remaining $198,000 came from City of Hastings ARPA funds as approved by the Hastings City Council.
Among improvements with the new packs, includes a low-air alarm alerting the wearer when 1/3 of the supply remains. The low-air alarm on the previous tanks was triggered when ¼ of the oxygen supply remained.
“This allows us more time to exit a structure should the firefighter have issues,” Miller said.
The packs include software allowing incident command to get up-to-date air level status for all personnel on scene. Incident command can also send commands to the wearer.
“We are excited to be able to provide reliable, high quality safety equipment to our firefighters, which in-turn allows them to provide a higher level of rescue services to the community,” Starling said.
