A federal grant has funded the replacement 51 Self-contained Breathing Apparatus for the DeKalb County Fire Department.

During last week’s regular monthly county meeting, County Fire Chief Donny Green requested that the county commission declare the 12 year-old units as surplus property and allow him to sell 39 of them either by sealed bid or through other means such as govdeals.com which is a government surplus auction platform. Four SCBA units will go to the Smithville, Alexandria Fire Department and the Smithville-DeKalb County Rescue Squad. The county commission granted the request.

Chief Green said the old units still work but no longer meet certification yet could still be used by other departments to supplement their inventory.

“These units are 12 years old already and the service life on them is 10 years, so they will not be around much longer but this will help them, fire departments and rescue squad, until they can get their units replaced,” said Chief Green.

Last summer, the DeKalb County Fire Department received word that it’s 2019 Assistance to Firefighters Grant, AFG, application, in the amount of $427,360, had been awarded. The AFG Program is administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, and the Department of Homeland Security.

The funding award was used to purchase Self-contained Breathing Apparatuses and associated equipment to serve all 12 of the department’s stations across the county. The Federal share of this award was $407,009.52 and the local matching share, to be provided by the DeKalb County Government, was $20,350.48.