The Battle Creek Fire Department continues to educate and equip its Hazardous Materials Team, today receiving a $1,500 grant for chemical-resistant gloves.
The funds are part of the Enbridge Safe Community program and this is the second year the city’s Fire Department has been a recipient. In 2014 the department received $1,000 for a ground and bonding detection kit, which allows the Haz-Mat Team to discharge static electricity at a scene, preventing explosions.
This year’s grant will purchase eight different types of gloves, made of different materials, to protect from a variety of chemicals to which firefighters might be exposed. Each type protects from specific chemicals with longer breakthrough times – the difference can be minutes versus hours, protecting firefighters’ hands in various situations involving chemicals. The grant will fund approximately 40 pairs of these gloves.
This year’s grant is another step toward the department’s goal of achieving National Incident Management System Type 2 credentials, a Federal Emergency Management Agency program that would rate the city’s department for response to specific hazardous materials incidents. Various training and equipment requirements are part of that process.
“It’s a pretty lofty goal,” said Fire Lt. Jake Martin, a member of the department’s Haz-Mat Team. But achieving it would place Battle Creek in a rare position to respond to hazardous incidents locally and beyond. Two of the glove types this year’s grant will fund – ultra-high temperature and ultra-low temperature gloves – will place the department closer to that goal.