Take a breath

The Moorcroft Fire Department’s expired air packs were discussed at Monday night’s council meeting.

Councilman Owen Mathews advocated perhaps assisting the firefighters in acquiring moneys to procure up-to-date tanks. “I understand the general impression is that they [tanks] haven’t been through the wear, but we do owe these guys; they put their lives on the line for us,” he said.

Councilman Paul Smoot asked Councilman and volunteer fire fighter Ben Glenn if there was a better method of rotation that the department could adopt, purchasing a few tanks at a time to mitigate the amount paid at once and stagger the expiration dates.

“That’s the thing that really hurt us, when you buy them all at one shot and then at that 15-year life span they’re done,” he said. All 40 tanks owned by the department need to be replaced.

Glenn reported that the volunteers have spoken of rotating the packs out in the future as well as purchasing only 12 as opposed to the 22 bought with the last grant. “[Fire Chief] Fred [Devish] agreed that we’ll probably get this next [grant]; we almost made it to the top tier of the last one.”