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11/09/2015 11:00 PMThe Guilford Fire Department will be ready to take on more heavy-duty rescue missions thanks to the new special missions trailer that arrived in late October. The trailer will allow the department to deploy to accidents faster and provide a more sophisticated rescue.
Assistant Fire Chief Wayne Vetre said the department was very pleased to receive the trailer.
“It is a special missions trailer that has specialized rescue equipment on it,” he said. “It is has air bags, tools, various equipment for heavy-duty rescues, and it has a generator, among other things.”
Vetre said the trailer will allow the firefighters to broaden the types of accidents to which they can quickly respond.
“It is going to help us on I-95 and it is going to help us along with the Amtrak corridor,” he said. “It is going to help with trench rescue and building collapses. And the idea is that everything is together on this trailer and it can be deployed quickly rather than being assembled.”
The new equipment will also benefit the region, according to Vetre.
“It is good to have this in the shoreline area,” he said. “Everyone of our career staff is certified in that kind of rescue. We know of no one else in the area that is going to be responding with a certified team.”
The $240,000 piece of equipment was acquired through the FEMA Assistance to Firefighters Grant.
“It is very expensive, but the timing was right,” said Vetre. “It is a lot of work that goes into getting these grants. We apply for whatever you can multiple times a year, so when you finally get rewarded it is nice.”
First Selectman Joe Mazza said grants like this help the department operate at such high level.
“This department works very hard on getting grants,” he said. “That is how we have the paid firefighters.”
Vetre said that the grants they receive directly benefit the community.
“We put a lot into the community with the receipt of our grants,” he said. “People know that because of our ongoing contribution to the community that if they put money into Guilford Fire Department, it is going to make Guilford safer, and when other towns call us, they are going to say we put money into the region.”