How the Grant Has Helped:

The air system brings the department into compliance with Occupational Safety and Health Administration Standard 1910.134 because it ensures that firefighters are breathing clean air.

For about 1 year, the DeForest Area Fire and EMS Department has been using a grant-funded in-house air compressor and containment system and truck-mounted air cascade system for filling emergency air bottles onsite. Department Chief Dave Arnold says these purchases have made a difference in improving the health and safety of their department's firefighters. The air system brings the department into compliance with Occupational Safety and Health Administration Standard 1910.134 because it ensures that firefighters are breathing clean air.

Before getting the new containment system, the person filling an air bottle ran the risk of being seriously, if not fatally, injured should the bottle rupture during the process. In addition, says Chief Arnold, "when air bottles ran out at the scene of a fire, someone would have to drive to the station to refill bottles before personnel could return to fighting the fire," a real problem for a rural department with a first-response area of 89 square miles. The truck-mounted air cascade has made it possible to refill bottles onsite. The DeForest Department also serves the communities of Hampden, Vienna, Leeds, and Windsor, Wisconsin.

The department's new in-house air compressor and containment system.

DeForest Department's new truck-mounted air cascade filling station.

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