Fire Company Cheers New Equipment

Holmdel Fire and Rescue Company No. 2 enthusiastically received a long awaited shipment yesterday -- 21 new pieces of equipment that will function as a firefighter's personal air source, with important safety features. 

The gift of the new Scott Safety Air Paks means every firefighter responding on a truck will be outfitted with the latest technology. It was paid in full with a $128,132 Assistance to Firefighters Grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which was supplemented by donations by Holmdel residents and a handful of businesses in town. 

The Air-Paks will be go nicely with the members' new turnout gear, which cost $55,000 and is being privately financed by the company. 

"We're itching to use the stuff," said Chief John Boyle, Sr., whose company has just come off an unusually dramatic stretch of firefighting, with two separate Parkway crashes and a small but potentially disastrous fire at the CEI Fragrance distribution center on Route 35. 

Until now, when a Company Two firefighter entered a burning building, the company could only keep track of them with radio, or notes on paper. If he or she fell unconscious, or their radio failed, it could be possible that nobody would know where to locate them. Firefighter rescuers would have to do a hand search or use a thermal imaging camera.

With the new smarter equipment, firefighters can be tracked, wirelessly. A distress alarm goes off on the disabled firefighter's Pak and emits a signal. A firefighter rescuer can use a handheld receiver wand, called a Scott Pak-Tracker, to locate the "firefighter down."

Also included in the Air-Paks is a display attached to breathing regulator that lights up with red, yellow and green indicators to tell the firefighter how much breatheable air remains on his or her back.

There is also a bail-out kit with a 50-foot of tubular Kevlar to hold up in the heat.  

And two state-of-the-art $8,000 thermal imaging cameras, that can be shared by members, to help the firefighters find hot spots in the fire, the source of the fire, or victims. 

To thank the company for its order, Scott donated 21 additional new breathing air cylinders that hold 45 minutes of breathable air. The company's old ones are good for 30 minutes. The bottles have a 15-year shelf life, and are imprinted with the Company logo so that they do not get lost at a fire scene. 

Some of the old stuff had me very concerned," said member Adam Korda. He said there were mismatched pieces of equipment that badly needed upgrading.

The company is currently working with Air Paks that met accepted safety standards in 1992, 1997 and 2002. The new Air Paks meet 2007 standards, the latest available. (The standards are upgraded every five years.) 

Company representatives attended a fire grant workshop hosted by Rep. Rush Holt (NJ-12). The members researched the equipment together and decided on purchases through a majority vote. In the spring, the members went door to door for 28 days to raise money to meet the matching grant. 

When Kenneth Moose of the Denville-based Fire Fighters Equipment Co. pulled up with the equipment, he said the men greeting him were "ecstatic," and jokingly demanded to know what where he'd been.  

They can't use the equipment just yet, though. The members will need to go through training on how to use the equipment at the Monmouth County Fire Academy, and with the Scott-certified Fire Fighters Equipment Co.