The Starkville Fire Department was recently on the receiving end of three grants totaling more than $300,000.
The grant money is already being put to use on a wide range of new equipment for firefighters and SFD Chief Charles Yarbrough said he was beyond elated when he got word of the additional funds.
“I apply for grants all year long, so to get three within a short amount of time was pretty exciting for our department because we got some much-needed equipment and also gave us something that nobody else has with the inflatable house to teach kids fire safety.”
The inflatable house was paid for with funds from a $9,000 grant provided by the 4-County Electric Power Association. The inflatable house concept is used across the country by fire departments as a training tool to help teach children fire safety in their home. Some designs allow for children to learn about fire safety in the kitchen, living room and bedroom.
The largest individual grant came from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in the amount of $269,000.
Yarbrough said the federal grant money from FEMA will see the city match 10 percent - $26,000 - which will ultimately help pay for new air packs for all working on SFD trucks along with a new cascade system.
A cascade filling system is used to refill self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) bottles, which is air used only for breathing.
A third grant benefiting the SFD came from Firehouse Subs, which is being used to improve diving equipment for the department.
“We’ve needed a dive trailer for forever,” Yarbrough said. “We have one trailer right now we keep rope and rescue equipment in and dive equipment, but we need this to take it when they go anywhere.”
Yarbrough said the new top-of-the-line dive trailer will serve a wide-range of uses, including if task forces need to stay out for an extended period of time.
“If they need to stay gone for like a week, they can live in this trailer,” Yarbrough said.
Yarbrough then said this latest round of grant money is the second time the SFD has benefited from Firehouse Subs, with the first round paying for all of the department’s dive equipment.
“What they did for us is something that would take us at the City years to do because we just don’t have the funds here to do it,” Yarbrough said.
Grants will remain an important piece of the SFD’s efforts moving forward, Yarbrough said, and he is thankful city leaders have supported him in applying for funds to help local firefighters keep the community safe.
“I want to thank the city and the Board of Aldermen for allowing us to apply for these grants,” Yarbrough said. “If they didn’t allow us to apply, we wouldn’t get them.”