WILLOW CREEK — The Willow Creek Volunteer Fire Department has been awarded a $47,000 grant from the Maine Emergency Management Agency for new rescue equipment, Chief Dale Fournier announced Wednesday.
The grant will fund the replacement of the department’s hydraulic extrication tools — commonly known as the “Jaws of Life” — which date to 1998 and have been repaired twice in the last year. The remaining funds will purchase eight new sets of turnout gear for volunteers who are currently using equipment past its recommended service life.
“This is equipment we hope we never have to use,” Fournier said at the fire station on Route 11, standing beside one of the department’s two aging pumpers. “But if the call comes, we need to know it’s going to work. This grant takes a load off my mind — and my maintenance budget.”
The grant was secured with assistance from the Aroostook County Emergency Management Agency and required a 10% local match, which the selectmen approved from the town’s contingency fund at Tuesday’s meeting.
The department will also use a portion of the grant to purchase a thermal imaging camera — a tool that the chief said would be “as useful for finding a hot spot in a wall as it would be for finding a lost hiker in the woods.”