Updated Equipment Keeps Volunteer Firefighters Breathing Easy

The Roberts Fire Department serves a unique area: rural homes and subdivisions with no access to water hydrants, trailer courts, low income apartments, farms with shops, grain elevators, chemical plants, open farm ground, and desert. Fire risks are varied and serious, and the region is growing. 

The department is run by a small team of four very part-time employees and 20 volunteer firefighters. The firefighters use SCBA (Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus) equipment, an essential tool that provides protection from smoke inhalation or carbon monoxide poisoning. The team's SCBA equipment had expired and could not be serviced, and because of various unexpected financial challenges, the department did not have the means to purchase replacements.

CHC Foundation was happy to provide a grant to make this purchase and keep these volunteer firefighters safe. 

Department Secretary/Treasurer and volunteer Kara Welch wrote, "When our last SCBAs were declared unserviceable, it seemed impossible that we would be able to get new ones, likely for a few years. We were quite worried about relying on the outdated equipment. This grant literally will help me sleep better at night, knowing if there's a call, our volunteers will have proper equipment. We are so excited to bring these new SCBAs into service."