Members of the Marthasville Fire Protection District hosted several Missouri rural fire department personnel Saturday, April 20.
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The Marthasville Fire Protection District (MFPD) was recently the recipient of a FEMA Assistance to Firefighters Grant in the amount of $150,000 for the purchase of new hoses for all its trucks.
According to FEMA, these funds are provided “to equip and train emergency personnel, enhance efficiencies and support community resilience.” The MFPD was responsible for five percent of the cost.
Chief Sean Johnson said the department is very grateful for the assistance and wanted to see if other fire departments could be helped at the same time. He reached out on social media to offer used equipment on a first come, first serve basis.
“Holding on to this equipment would be wasted,” said Chief Johnson. “We felt it was best to give back to communities who had need. We felt it would show the true hospitality of our community.”
On Saturday, April 20, personnel from nine rural fire departments traveled up to five hours to Marthasville’s Station 1 to gather critical equipment for their own fire stations. Fire departments represented were from the Missouri communities of Bakersfield, Calhoun, Caulfield, Gainesville, Grandin, Licking, Moody, Pottersville and Tecumseh.
In addition to hoses, other free equipment included nozzles, backboards, rescue tools, leaf blowers and gurneys. Goods were sorted on the bay floor by MFPD volunteers for the visiting firefighters to look through.
Johnson said he received a number of thank you messages from the visiting firefighters including one from Chief Greg Watts of Bakersfield.
“Just passing on information to you that your gracious donation we hauled back has helped five departments,” said Watts.
Johnson said the MFPD is very fortunate in many ways, including receiving a number of grants in the past two years which has helped replace critical rescue equipment. He also credits a generous community for their continued support of the department.
