MANSFIELD — Mansfield Fire Department Chief Dan Crow said Tuesday federal grant dollars often flow toward areas officials in Washington deem most important.
That made seeking FEMA grant money for a system to remove diesel engine exhaust fumes from fire stations a no-brainer for a department that had no such equipment in place.
The MFD will use the $218,576 federal Assistance to Firefighters Grant award, accepted by City Council in October, to fund the bulk of a new automatic, air-cleansing system for each of the city’s fire stations.
The work, including a 10-percent match from MFD capital funds, will be done by AIRVAC, a company based in Indiana, using its AIRVAC 911 engine exhaust removal system.
The city’s Board of Control approved the contract on Tuesday morning.
“We identified it as a pretty big deficiency right when we did our strategic plan and looked at our health and safety issues,” said Crow, promoted to chief in December 2023.
“This type of system is now a standard in the fire service, to have these systems installed, particularly because our trucks are going in and out all day long. It has been found that that diesel exhaust is a known carcinogen.
“It gets into our fire gear, it gets into our equipment and then it’s something that we just kind of carry around with us all over the place,” the chief said.
“FEMA made this a high priority. One of our strategies with grants has been trying to find the grants that we have the best shot at getting. So not only did it kind of fulfill something that we identified as a safety hazard, it put us in the best spot to get the federal funding for it, which is why we targeted this last year,” Crow said.
The chief said the work would be scheduled in the spring when the weather is warmer.
“They’re going to be hanging these units in the stations. We’re going to have to be parking the vehicles outside for at least a day or so while they’re working during business hours to install these.
“We certainly want to make it so we’re not parking trucks outside in the freezing weather while they’re installing these,” Crow said. “So it will be a Q1 or Q2 project for us.”
During the Board of Control meeting, he said the MFD looked at different options before selecting the modular, hands-free system.
“This one that we’re presenting to you doesn’t require any modifications to the building itself,” Crow said. “It’s not a very intensive installation process.
“We looked at ones that go on the trucks themselves. We looked at ones that contain hoses and piping systems to kind of vent the diesel exhaust out.
“This one’s more of a passive one that just has 360-degree airflow that cleans the air in the station. It’s connected to sensors on the door, so when the doors go up, the system turns on and starts its scrubbing process,” the chief said.
“We thought it was the one that had the best fit for our current stations and some of the lowest ongoing costs, as well,” he said.
The chief said newer fire stations around the country already have such systems.
“I would say that any station that was built more than 10 years ago probably has this deficiency if they haven’t already corrected it,” he said.
Newer stations such as one in Shelby have such an exhaust system.
“I know this particular system that we’re going to get was just installed in the Washington Township fire station that they just built here in the last year” Crow said. “The newer stations are adding these as just a standard feature, just like all the rest of the utilities that go into the building.”
The cost of the work by station was identified Tuesday as:
— $82,234 for Station 1 on East Third Street.
— $26,050 for Station 2 on North Brookwood Way.
— $26,050 for Station 3 on Sunset Boulevard.
— $74,296 for Station 4 on South Main Street.
— $9,946 for Station 6 on Springmill Street.