A grant of nearly $1 million will benefit all the fire departments in Franklin County. The Ottawa Fire Department applied for and received a grant through FEMA to purchase new air packs and other apparatus. They have received 130 packs, 260 air bottles and face masks and a trailer to store it all in. The gear will be split among all the area fire departments. Ottawa Fire Chief Tim Mathias says everyone wins.
The grant also came with training, which will be supplied by the company. Mathias says now all the firefighters in the entire county will have the same air packs and everyone will be able to use them interchangeably. He says Ottawa’s last air packs were purchased through a grant in 2007 and were due for replacement.
