Fire departments in Genesee and Saginaw County will receive grants to replace outdated equipment and air tanks.
The Flushing Fire Department and the Montrose Township department, both in Genesee County, have been awarded joint funding of $274,472.
The Saginaw Fire Department has been awarded $70,472.
Flushing Fire Chief, James Michael said the equipment his department has been using is 18 years old. He said it’s unreliable and puts the firefighters in danger.
“It makes it so that they can’t do their jobs effectively,” Michael said. “We’ve been having a lot of problems with our past devices. If somebody goes down in a fire or something, they're supposed to go off to let us know that they're in trouble, but they go off all the time.”
Congressman Dan Kildee said the grants are federally funded through the Department of Homeland Security because local departments are first responders.
“Hopefully it never happens, but we know, for example on 9/11 it was local firefighters who responded to this national security threat,” Kildee said. “It's important that the federal government understand that the federal interest, our national security needs are much better met when we have very well supported local fire departments.”
