News : Vinton Fire Department receives new equipment

"Equipment has heart, human heart, inside it." Ichiro SuzukiChristmas came a bit early to the Vinton Fire Station in the form of 20 brand-new MSA Fire G1 Self-contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) and 40 new "45-minute" bottles purchased through Sandry Fire Supply and Darren Bierman. This purchase was a long process and involved a tremendous amount of work on the part of Chief Garwood, Training Officer Boisen, and Captain McKenna with input from the department members. Also huge thanks to Steve Meyer of Garrison and Chris Ward, City of Vinton Administrator for coordinating funding. The majority of this purchase was supplied by a grant written and submitted through Stever Meyer with the remaining cost split between the City of Vinton and VFD funds secured through the generosity of the community supporting our fundraisers. Now for those asking why we purchased new ones when the old ones are only 10 years old....the simple answer is we have to in order to remain compliant with the National Fire Prevention Association (NFPA) Standards that require SCBA's be replaced every 10 years based on their expected lifetimes. If we do not comply not only are we in violation of NFPA and OSHA standards but we increase the risk to health and life that our members face when using old SCBAs. Finally, by staying compliant we keep a lower (which is better...like in golf) Insurance Organization (ISO) Rating which lowers property owner's insurance costs for those in our fire district....but that is a deeper story for another time. Darren provided training on the use and maintenance of the new G1 SCBAs while our members were able to get used to the new equipment. These SCBAs offer significant upgrades to safety, technology, and user comfort compared to our previous packs and we want to thank the engineering team behind this product for a job well done listening to firefighter input and responding with a fantastic product. We want to thank the community as a whole for their long history of generous support to VFD that makes critical purchases like these possible!