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JAMESTOWN, NY (WNY News Now) – The Jamestown Fire Department is seeking a plethora of new equipment, including a long awaited second ambulance.
Jamestown lawmakers heard multiple resolutions to enhance the local fire fighting crews.
Including the hiring of five new firefighters, who’s positions were created earlier in the year.
Councilman Jeff Russell asked Fire Chief Matt Coon if he had trouble finding qualified candidates.
The Chief responded by saying not with this batch of recruits, but the FEMA grant personnel might be difficult to hire due to the lack of EMS training in candidates.
While this would not be a problem, they would need to attend the academy for extra time to become certified.
The Fire department would also receive much needed radios and bail out equipment. Paid for by a federal grant.
“We don’t have any interoperability right now with outside agencies,“ explained Chief Coon. “When mutual aid comes in, we cannot talk to them from the fire department. We have to go through dispatch relay to do that. The radios that we would be acquiring are similar to ones that JPD has recently acquired, they will access our system, and they will also access the county’s terminal system, so we would be able to have that interoperability from the fire ground, or any incident that we’re doing that there’s people outside of the vehicles.”
“And the radios you’re using now are not really meant to be in the fire atmosphere, am I right?” asked Councilman Russell.
“Right, they are generally pretty rugged but, if you were trying to change the channels or turn the volume up or down, or hit the emergency button on them, you would have to take your gloves off to do that,” stated Chief Coon. “Which is one of the number one things you don’t want to do in a hot environment.”
Chief Coon also stated that the bid for a second ambulance came back for $217,741 dollars.
This model, similar to the current city ambulance, also includes a load system and a stretcher saving the city an extra $50,000 dollars.
Once the city gets the vehicle, they would need to then add striping, extra tires, and radios.
The chief expects the new ambulance to be in the Pearl City around Fall.
All ordinances passed the public safety and finance committees.
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