The Warrenton and Wright City fire protection districts are awaiting final confirmation that the Federal Emergency Management Agency will provide $319,000 for about 50 new self-contained breathing apparatuses. Local officials said the grant is going through the final process for approval.Also called “air packs,” the breathing apparatuses are the gear that firefighters use to breathe when they walk into a burning building. They consist of a mask, compressed air tank, pressure regulators, and all the interconnected tubes and controls. The air packs have a 15-year expiration date, when they’re no longer safe to rely upon, which Wright City Fire Chief Ron MacKnight said is next year for his district.“It’s not that they’re going to quit working on Jan. 1. The concern is, because they are going to be 15 years old, they will no longer ... be the safest unit out there, because of their age,” MacKnight said. “It’s your lifeline in a fire. It gives you a fresh supply of air to breathe, so you’re not breathing all these toxins in. In a fire, the toxins in that smoke will kill you in just a couple minutes.”One of the worst case scenarios for a firefighter is for a worn-out air pack to malfunction while inside a burning structure.ApplicationThe two fire districts originally applied together for a FEMA cost-share grant in 2017 to replace 33 air packs in Wright City and 23 in Warrenton. Through the grant, FEMA would pay about 90 percent of the cost to replace the packs, including spare air tanks for each of the new units.The estimated cost to totally replace the air packs is about $6,300 each, around $351,000 for 56 packs. All of the breathing apparatuses in a fire district need to be replaced at the same time so that they are identical, avoiding any confusion that could put a firefighter in danger during a fire.Although the total replacement cost might seem high, fire officials explained that having worn out units that need continuous maintenance and replacement parts can also be expensive, costing thousands per year to keep the old units in service.Hardship waiverWarrenton Fire Chief Anthony Hayeslip said FEMA provided initial approval for the grant in August 2018, with former Chief Mike Owenby coordinating the application. The grant required the fire districts pay a combined $31,900 to cover the remaining 10 percent of the replacement cost.However, after Hayeslip took charge of Warrenton Fire in early 2018, he became concerned about the district’s financial position and ability to afford its matching cost.“As soon as I got in here, I looked at the finances and I could rapidly see that things were going to be very tight,” Hayeslip said. “In 2017 when they wrote this (grant), we were in a little bit different situation. ... Almost two years later, we’re in a completely different (financial) situation.”After discussion with FEMA representatives, Hayeslip applied for what’s called a “hardship waiver,” essentially asking for FEMA to waive the cost-share requirement. If approved, FEMA would still provide the $319,000, but not force the fire districts to chip in the $31,900 match.After that, as far as the fire officials could tell, the amended grant became lost in the federal bureaucracy for months. It wasn’t until late August that two things happened in close proximity: a Wright City Fire Board member contacted Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer’s office for help with the process, and Hayeslip got a call from a FEMA assistant director.The grant and cost-share waiver started moving again then, and Hayeslip said officials here were reassured that the grant should be approved when the changes have been processed.Both districts said they have already received bids for the air pack purchases, and are just waiting for the green light from FEMA.“We’re kind of in a holding pattern right now,” Hayeslip commented. Once everything is approved, the rest of the process should be comparatively quick. “We’ll have to put in a purchase request, but that should be relatively simple because we have a pretty good game plan of what we’re going to do.”Not having to pay the 10 percent match cost does have one negative consequence, Hayeslip said. Without paying that cost, Warrenton Fire likely won’t be purchasing the full 23 air packs that it initially hoped for.But Hayeslip said the district also has slightly fewer personnel than in 2017, and will do fine with fewer air packs than it originally requested.Wright City Fire officials said they also expect to be purchasing fewer air packs through the grant after the change, but will still have their needs met.Going forward, officials with both districts said they will continue to look for any opportunities to participate in grant programs and save money.

Self Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) used by Wright City Fire Department.