Monessen fire companies need cash for equipment

By KRISTIE LINDEN

klinden@yourmvi.com

Monessen council will consider buying new equipment for the city’s two fire departments.

The departments need a combined $63,263 for enough Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus tanks to outfit firefighters.

The air tanks have a lifespan of 15 years and most of the departments’ tanks are 17 years old, Mayor Matt Shorraw told council last week. 

“We can’t expect them to go into burning buildings risking their lives and not have the proper breathing equipment,” Shorraw said.

The departments haven’t had much luck with securing grant funding the last few years, Shorraw said, and due to COVID-19 restrictions, fundraising was nearly impossible last year.     

Shorraw said municipal fire Chief Delmar Hepple put the request in and asked council to discuss it. The item will likely be on the agenda for a vote tomorrow night.

Howell Rescue Systems, the company that has supplied both Monessen No. 1 and Hilltop departments with the backpacks that carry the SCBA tanks, carries the specific tanks that go with the backpacks.

To buy SCBA tanks elsewhere would be mean buying new backpacks as well. Howell Rescue Systems is the only company in Pennsylvania that carries the model Monessen needs.

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