Rescuing victims from inaccessible locations is about to get much easier for the Addison Township Fire Department.
That’s because on March 16 township trustees approved spending $3,091 to acquire the various materials the fire department will need to conduct such rescues.
The equipment is being purchased through Arizona-based American Safety and Rescue.
It includes a Main Line Kit for $995; a Belay Line Kit for $815; one rescue harness for $325; half-inch National Fire Protection Association blue and red rescue ropes for a combined $432; one-inch-thick tubular webbing for $210; rescue rope bags totaling $88 and a nine-millimeter, 300-foot NFPA rescue rope for $226.
Addison’s Interim Fire Chief Jerry Morawski ordered the equipment the day after the meeting and said it should arrive in one to two weeks.
‘This will help us to facilitate our mutual aid agreement with surrounding communities,? Morawski said. ‘Before this, with limited, outdated equipment, if we had someone in an inaccessible place we’d have to activate the North Oakland Rescue Team.?
Because American Safety and Rescue also is the equipment provider for the department’s mutual aid association, the chief said it was important to acquire the equipment from them to be interchangeable with other fire department’s equipment.