Lavonia Fire Department Receives Major Federal Grant

The Lavonia Fire Department has received a major grant through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Earlier this week, City Manager Gary Fesperman announced the department received a grant in the amount of $229,456, which includes a City match of $10,926.

Lavonia Police Chief Scott O’Barr said the money will be used to replace some aging equipment.

“We put in for the grant last year and were awarded it this year,” O’Barr said. “We’re going to use the grant money to purchase and replace all of our breathing air devises, which entails our air tanks that we wear on our banks and also to purchase a new air compresssor that fills those tanks.”

O’Barr said new air tanks for the firefighters are more lightweight and can hold more oxygen.

“It was an outdated system that we had,” he said. “The airpacks we currently have the pressure rating is 2216psi and the ones we’re switching to will have a psi rating of 4500, which will enable us to stay in those environments for longer periods of time and be safer while we’re doing it.”

According to O’Barr the new airpacks are about 15lbs lighter than the current ones firefighters are using.

But he said the current compressor they are using is 30 years old and cannot pump enough air into the new canisters.

“The compressor we have is not able to fill those new cylinders to that standard so we had to change all of that aswell,” O’Barr said.

O’Barr said the equipment is already ordered.

He said this is the first major grant the fire department has received in 15 years.