It was like Christmas morning recently at the Cortez Fire Department District.
Boxes and boxes arrived at the downtown fire station filled with air tanks, masks, regulators and harnesses for the new self-contained breathing apparatus. The packages arrived thanks to a $284,000 grant received by the fire district last year.
The high-tech devices will replace firefighters’ current equipment, which is about 10 years old.
Assistant Cortez Fire Chief Charles Balke held up one of the new tanks with a smile on his face.
“When I started 25 years ago, these weighed 20 pounds,” he said holding up an aluminum tank wrapped in carbon fiber.
Today, they weigh only 8 pounds and even last longer.
The 10-year-old packs that the new ones will replace would give firefighters about 30 minutes of air in a toxic or heavy smoke environment.
“That means the firefighters could only work about 15 minutes or less before we would have to pull them back out,” Balke said.
The new packs will give firefighters 45 minutes of air.
“They will definitely increase the on-scene work time,” Balke said.
With the grant, the fire department was able to purchase 80 new tanks, 40 tank harnesses and 40 masks. In addition, the fire department purchased RIT packs, which are carried in fire engines and can be used to rescue firefighters.
“Right now, we are the only department in Montezuma County with these RIT packs,” Balke said.
Firefighters are expected to get fitted to the equipment this weekend and will later train with the devices. Balke expects firefighters will be using the equipment by June 15.
The tanks have the fire department’s logo and a glow band around the top. In addition, the harness has lights on it, so firefighters can be seen in low-visibility conditions.
The matching portion of the grant was about $14,000.
“This is a pretty big deal to not have to purchase this equipment out of our budget,” Balke said.