New upgrades to life-saving equipment are now being put to good use at five Johnson County Fire Departments.
The city of Olathe spearheaded efforts for a $2.2 million grant to fund new airpacks for five fire districts in Johnnson County — Olathe, Lenexa, Shawnee, Fire District # 1 and Northwest Consolidated Fire District.
“This is a new technology, new equipment and the technology industry is really starting to embrace the fire service and the technology is just really taken off here,” Fire Marshal Corey Sands said.
The Shawnee Fire Department has 60 new airpacks. This equipment, firefighter TK Allen says, is the most important.
“I mean without the pack, all the other gear is pretty much useless,” Allen said.
“These airpacks are what a firefighter would wear with an air mask, to be able to go into a lethal environment, into a house fire and still survive,” Sands said.
Firefighters carry about 70 pounds worth of gear, including these new airpacks.
The old ones had about 30 minutes of air, the new ones have 45 minutes. Sands says just that 15 extra minutes could be the difference between life and death.
“We can do our jobs more efficiently than we have ever before,” he said.
Sands says one of the best features is being able to track a firefighter.
“As soon as that firefighter steps off the truck, their airpack links with incident commander, the fire chief on scene with his computer,” he said. “Now the fire chief can tell which firefighter's on scene, what truck they came from, and how much air is in their air pack.”
When battling fires, technology can track the firefighter’s safety so they can save others.
“So, if we get a firefighter trapped or injured inside a house fire, the fire chief knows their location and that is critical in our everyday business,” he said.
Sands says this grant was able to save $300,000 in taxpayer dollars.
The old airpacks were donated to rural fire departments and a local community college.
