Grants, donations provide upgrades for Arlee Fire Department
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ARLEE — It’s been a good year for the Arlee Volunteer Fire Department. After moving out of a 50-year-old building that was once the town jail to a brand new facility in January, the department has recently added several pieces of new equipment that Chief Ken Light said will improve service to the community.
A top-of-the-line defibrillator/monitor, a thermal imaging camera and a crash rescue truck are among the new purchases.
With the help of a Montana Department of Transportation grant, the department bought a $20,000 Lifepak 15 monitor/defibrillator, a machine Light said is the best on the market. The matching grant meant Arlee Fire only had to pay $2,000 — 10 percent of the cost — for the equipment, Light noted.
And since Missoula-based Lifeflight also recently upgraded to the new Lifepak, transferring patients to Lifeflight helicopter crews will be smoother.
“So if we pass a patient off, they’ll have the same patches,” Light explained.
The Lifepak, which monitors patients’ heart rates and blood oxygen levels, can even check blood pressure as well as being a defibrillator. It will be kept on the new crash rescue truck, an “ambulance on steroids” that the department bought used from an ambulance service in Wyoming, Light said.
Once it’s outfitted with Arlee Fire decals, the rescue truck will carry equipment such as the Jaws of Life rescue tool and hazardous material cleanup equipment. The department got a great deal on the truck, and was able to buy the vehicle with savings, Light noted. Arlee Fire’s fleet of vehicles now includes two ambulances, two brush trucks, a structure engine, a tanker and the new crash rescue truck.
“So we’re pretty set for vehicles right now,” Light said. “It’s amazing — Arlee Fire’s really on the up-and-up.
“This building’s been a tremendous boost to us.”
And the community’s been very supportive of their volunteer firefighters. The July 4 firefighters’ pancake breakfast brought in enough funds to pay for a $4,500 thermal imaging camera that uses infrared to pinpoint heat sources. The camera can be used for locating people in situations such as nighttime wrecks or house fires and can show hot spots in wildland fires, Light said.
“So thanks to the Arlee community that came out for the pancake breakfast,” Light said. “(The camera) is another really nice tool to have for the fire department.”
A water pump to fill trucks from a 25,000-gallon underground water tank and a new diesel generator were also recently installed as part of the new fire hall project, which was paid for by a nearly $800,000 MDOT grant. With the new pump, filling a tanker will take about 15 minutes, Light said, and the emergency generator will keep the lights on during power outages.
“Regardless of what happens to the grid, we’re still in business,” he said.
