Grant will bring fire dept. to the future

Grant will bring fire dept. to the future
BY KENNY WALTER Staff Writer
Long Branch officials are hoping that a $67,500 federal grant will help bring the city’s Fire Department into a new age.

The grant, along with a $7,500 matching appropriation, was approved with two resolutions during the Aug. 10 City Council meeting.

Long Branch Fire Chief Sebastian Tomaine said the U.S. Department of Homeland Security FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) grant would go toward a new computer system for the department.

“We applied 18 months ago for a grant for [a] computerized [system] within the fire department,” he said. “Seventy-five hundred dollars can get you $75,000 worth of computer equipment. I don’t think that’s a bad deal.”

Tomaine said the goal is to bring the department into the future to better serve residents.

“We are putting laptop computers in all the fire apparatuses and the fire chief cars,” he said. “It brings us light years into the future as far as the information we have before we even get to the fire scene,” he said. “It gives you almost every piece of information you need within those few minutes to get to the fire.”

It will also make the firefighters safer in case there is something in a fire that may be hazardous to them. It informs them how many occupants are in the structure, any pets, the closest fire hydrant, etc., he added.

“It tells you everything imaginable, and you can’t beat that.”

Tomaine said the process of going out to bid and implementing the system is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

“We are totally excited about this,” he said. “Of course it is going to take us a few months to implement information and to go out for bid for the computers.”

Tomaine said he doesn’t expect more than a few local municipalities to have the technology that his department will soon have, and that the system could also be used in non-emergency situations, such as code enforcement.

It will also be used to help coordinate information with both the police department and emergency medical services.

Tomaine said that the average response time is three to five minutes, and in that time with the new computers, the firefighters will be better equipped.

“The information that they’ll get while they’re en route is absolutely essential,” he said. “If you need to find an address, you just look it up and it gives you all the information.”

Tomaine said that the paid firefighters would have in-service training days, while the volunteers will take a class to learn how to use the computer system.

“It is going to take a lot of effort to input all the information,” he said. “It’s not going to take very long; it is a very simplistic system.”

Contact Kenny Walter at

Kwalter@gmnews.com.





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