Fire Dept. Purchases New Equipment with $15,000 Grant

A portable heart monitor to help Hermosa Beach residents in distress tops the list of new equipment the fire department is purchasing thanks to a recent grant. 

The monitor is one of several items funded with  a $15,000 grant from the Fireman's Fund Insurance Company Heritage Program. The grant, awarded in November, is  sponsored by  Swett & Crawford, a nationwide insurance company. 

The department applied for the grant after learning of it from Josh Ochs, a Hermosa Beach resident and recent City Council candidate.  

Under the leadership of Fire Chief David Lantzer, the department has been looking for good deals on equipment essential to their life-saving operation.

The most expensive item on their purchase list is a $7,400 portable heart monitor that gauges blood pressure and oxygen saturation. The monitor will be most useful at summer events, enabling  firefighters to assess patients' conditions accurately and swiftly.

The list also includes outdoor sleeping cots for firefighters who help other cities in case of wildfires, safety equipment for the fire engines, brush fire gear including coats, pants and goggles, and new intake valves for pumping water.

Most of these items have not yet arrived at the Pier Avenue station yet. The process has been time-consuming due to the search for good deals to stretch the grant money.

The $15,000  grant  "is not much in a big budget sense," said Lantzer, whose department, with 21 firefighters and administrative staff members, had a budget of $5.4 million in 2009. "But when you look at our equipment budget, $15,000 is a lot of money. It goes a long way. That's why we are trying to stretch it out as much as we can. Get the best equipment we can at a good price." 

 About 80 percent of the budget goes for personnel expenses, and everything being funded by the grant had already been slated for purchase when the city slashed the department's budget by $150,000, Lantzer said.

Still, one grant won't fill the budget gap and like ever other city entity, the fire department is putting off some major purchases. One of the department's three engines — a 1997 Smeal 55' Aerial ladder truck -- is sluggish and in need of constant repair, Lantzer said. But it would cost  upwards of $350,000to replace. The newest fire engine at the station was purchased a decade ago.

An assistant fire chief post, vacant since last year, continues to remain frozen.  

"It does become difficult, but the economy affects not just fire services, it is affecting everybody," he said. "We are team players and we work with the rest of the city trying to get through this tough time."

"That our first responders have access to the most advanced equipment is something the residents of Hermosa Beach deserve," Hermosa Beach Mayor Michael DiVirgilio said. "I'm proud of the effort that the Fire Department and all of the city's employees are making to help uncover new sources of revenue, like this grant, during the current economic time."

The department has applied for several  federal and state grants to cover the budget shortfall. A State Homeland Security grant in 2009 enabled them to update and replace breathing cylinders. The department has two applications pending through the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program, which they hope to use for training supplies and equipment and for a new fire engine.   

The $15,000 grant is part of a nationwide philanthropic program funded by Fireman's Fund designated to provide equipment, training and educational tools to local fire departments. Since 2004, more than 1,400 different departments have received over $23 million in grants, according to Fireman's Fund. Hermosa Beach Fire Department was awarded a $7,500 grant earlier last year by the program, which was used to purchase protective clothing for firefighters.