VALLEY CITY, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – It’s been more than a decade since Valley City Firefighters bunker gear has been upgraded. So the city commission approved of grant with the city paying a 5-percent match.

Valley City Fire Chief Scott Magnuson said the grant included boots, helmets, bunker coat and bunker pants with suspenders, Fire gloves and Nomex hood 2. He said this gear would have been around 218,000.00 dollars without the grant as the companies have to follow trade pricing guidelines from FEMA, yes it would have come out of the city budget, thanks to the grant it did not.

Magnuson said we have 40 members on our roster. White helmets are chief officers, Fire chief, Assistant Chief and Captain. The Red helmets are Lieutenants, and the black helmets are Firefighters with of course the yellow are for our probationary members.

Magnuson said we average approximately 225 general all calls per year and 180 Chief pages which the only call myself or whoever is covering for me. The gear we replaced would have been 12 years old, National Fire Protections Association (NFPA) says you can only have your gear in service for 10 years, volunteers can go a little longer. By 10 years if it is an active member meaning going in with heat and smoke with 10 year old equipment is the limit.

Magnuson said the new gear is important to our members, first off to keep them safe up to 1200 degrees there are a lot of variables that go with that of course, it also protects them from the carcinogens that today’s materials are made from to help them from developing numerous forms of cancer that are prevalent in the fire service. For the community it allows the firefighters to go into burning homes and do longer search and rescue times to ensure the well being of the occupants.

The total dollar amount of the grant was $178,581.36 of which the city will have to pay a 5% match or about $8.925 dollars. He said without the grant the cost to the city would’ve been about $218,000 dollars.