The Delaware State Fire School is getting some federal help to replace some of its aging equipment.
The Federal Assistance to Firefighters program awarded the school a $234,600 grant to help buy new equipment for the school’s instructors and classrooms.
About $100,000 of the grant will go toward purchasing fifty new sets of protective clothing and equipment known as “turnout gear” for the school’s instructors that teach live burn training
Delaware State Fire School Training Administrator Tucker Dempsey says that until now, instructors would bring used gear from volunteer fire stations, many of which did not provide adequate fire protection.
“We haven’t really bought coats in bulk in a long time, so normally we’ve only been able to buy maybe one or two at a time depending on how our budget worked out," said Dempsey. "This is going to pretty much outfit everybody that teaches our live burn training with a full brand new set of gear.”
The last bulk purchase of coats the school made was in 1988.
Dempsey says it is becoming more crucial that training instructors are outfitted with protective gear on par with what firefighters in the field use.
“There’s been a couple training injuries and deaths across the country," said Dempsey. "We’ve been fairly fortunate hear that we haven’t really had any but a Pennsylvania Fire Instructor died a few years ago in a live burn situation. It’s been a lot more critical here in the last few years to make sure that we have our guys protected as well as possible.”
The remainder of the grant will fund the purchase of new radios as well as new classroom equipment like tablet computers, projectors, and simulation software.
The Federal Assistance to Firefighters grant stems from the Congressional Fire Services Caucus, of which Delaware's entire congressional delegation are members. While Dempsey that the grant is about the only federal support that fire services get every year.
"Most of our money comes from local sources," said Dempsey. "It goes directly to the fire departments. Usually when a state agency gets a grant, it has to go through the state and the state takes a piece of it. This is one of the few grants in the country that goes directly to the recipient."
The Delaware State Fire School educated 11,000 firefighters and 10,000 EMT’s in 2013 through training and testing programs. It also reached over 20,000 members of the public through its fire safety program.