Lanesborough Volunteer Fire Department

Department Characteristics 
 
Lanesborough Volunteer Fire Department is located in central Berkshire 
County in western Massachusetts. LVFD protects an area of 29.74 square 
miles and responds to over 385 Fire, EMS, and Rescue calls each year. 
Two state highways, US Routes 7 & 8, run through our district. A large 
portion of Mount Greylock State Reservation, including the summit at the
 top, is located within our district and has presented many difficult 
rescue situations in the past. We provide protection for the 650,000 
square foot Berkshire Mall located in our district. LVFD provides 
automatic mutual aid response to the neighboring Town of New Ashford, 
with a population of 800 and a fire department of 12 members. We provide
 them with the Jaws of Life for motor vehicle accidents on US Rt. 7 and 
response to any type of fire or rescue. Department staffing is 100% 
volunteer, consisting of 40 members, both men and women. LVFD provides 
an aggressive fire safety/prevention program to the children and elderly
 in town. The town has a residential population of 3,000 with an 
expanding year round tourist population. The neighboring town of Hancock
 is home to two large resort properties and there are plans to build 
resorts in both Lanesborough and New Ashford. The district consists of 
light commercial and industrial areas, high-density residential areas, 
single family homes, rural farmland, and large areas of forested land. 
We provide and receive mutual aid from over ten surrounding fire 
departments and EMS providers including the neighboring City of 
Pittsfield. 
 
Project Description 
 
The project we are requesting funding for is the purchase of a multi-purpose
 rescue/pumper vehicle outfitted with a compressed air foam system (CAFS)
 and built in hydraulic hose reels and power units for use with our 
existing Jaws of Life extrication tools. This vehicle will be capable of
 carrying a wide array of fire/rescue equipment to include, but not be 
limited to, extrication, hazardous materials decontamination, Rapid 
Intervention Team (RIT), wildland fire, EMS, and general fire ground 
support equipment. 
 
Use of Grant Funds Explanation 
 
All of the funds we have specified on the budget form will be used to 
purchase the aforementioned vehicle. Our annual operating budget is 
currently used for training in such areas as vehicle extrication, HazMat
 operations, RIT operations, technical rescue, EMS, Fire Fighter I , and
 purchasing the necessary equipment to support these operations. Also 
included in this budget are vehicle and equipment maintenance and 
repairs, firefighter physicals and immunizations, and utility costs to 
name a few. We intend to continue funding in all these areas to provide 
the highest level of service possible. 
 
Department Benefits 
 
The benefits to the department that this vehicle will provide are 
numerous. The most important benefit would be to the safety of our 
firefighters: the ability to properly equip our RIT operations and have 
all the equipment in one vehicle for all the operations that it shall 
support. Our members have been involved in training in all these 
operations for many years now. We presently have the proper NFPA 
compliant equipment to equip our members (PPE, SCBA, TIC, etc.) and up 
to date rescue equipment, but cannot guarantee it will get to the scene 
since it is spread across several vehicles: attack pumper, supply/mutual
 aid pumper and a utility pickup vehicle. Eighty percent of our members 
work during the day, making it very difficult to respond with all three 
vehicles. This would guarantee the proper equipment gets to the scene 
any time of day and provide the ability to do more work with a smaller 
crew. Statistics show that we respond to a large number of motor vehicle
 collisions each year requiring the necessary support equipment to be 
stored on these vehicles. These vehicles all have limited space, so 
equipment is tightly packed to save space, making it difficult to access.
 We are unable to fully equip each vehicle with the necessary equipment 
to support their intended operations. The utility vehicle is needed for 
EMS and forest fire support and both the attack and supply/mutual aid 
pumpers are needed for fire attack. Dedicating our supply pumper to a 
motor vehicle accident deems it unavailable for any other calls that may
 come in. A rescue/pumper would carry all of our current rescue 
equipment efficiently and safely, providing user friendly operation for 
both the men and women of the department, and allow our other current 
apparatus to be outfitted with the proper equipment to fulfill their 
intended purposes. The women in the department would be more comfortable
 becoming qualified to operate a smaller, compact vehicle. This would 
dramatically increase firefighter safety during emergency operations. 
 
The need for CAFS has proven itself in the past seven years since we 
purchased our front line attack pumper with this system. Its shown 
substantial increases in fire knockdown at all types of fires. The use 
of Class A foam lowers the surface tension of water and allows it to 
better permeate surfaces using less water and needing fewer personnel to
 operate. This allows personnel to operate more safely and effectively 
during incidents where manpower is short and also limits the amount of 
runoff at HazMat incidents. 
 
The built in hydraulic hose reels and power unit would allow personnel 
to access preconnected hydraulic extrication tools and get right to the 
job at hand. Currently we have to remove the power unit, reels, extra 
hose, and tools from the trucks, carry them to the work area, and take 
extra time assembling them, granted they go together smoothly. Being 
able to grab and go would substantially increase firefighter safety and 
provide the quickest possible access to patient extrication. 
 
The use of the vehicle as a wildland interface apparatus will allow us 
to attack wildfires with a large crew and Class A foam. We are one of 
fifteen Statewide Fire Mobilization districts, first organized in the 
1950s, that are called to respond to large-scale forest fires and other 
disasters as part of the Statewide Fire Mobilization Plan. This vehicle 
would become the front line piece as part of our forestry and disaster 
task force responses. 
 
Community Benefits 
 
The benefits to the community are numerous as well. This apparatus would
 allow us to properly handle almost any situation we may be faced with. 
History shows that both Routes 7 & 8 have been the scenes of major 
traffic accidents requiring the use of extrication equipment. In the 
past year alone, LVFD has responded to three accidents resulting in 
fatalities on the two highways. According to traffic count studies 
developed by Massachusetts Highway Department and Berkshire Regional 
Planning Commission, the average annual daily traffic (AADT) count for 
US Route 7 in 2000 was 13,400 and 13,309 for US Route 8 in 2001. US 
Route 7 is the main artery for tourists traveling to nearby resort 
properties. According to a 2001 U.S. Department of Transportation study,
 61 percent of all accidents resulting in fatalities occurred in rural 
areas, totaling 25,737 fatalities. Speeding was a contributing factor in
 30 percent of all fatal accidents in 2001. According to local police, 
speeding is constantly a problem in town. Besides US Routes 7 & 8, there
 are several other town roads which pose a hazard of traumatic accidents.
 This vehicle will fully equip our personnel with the proper equipment 
for dealing with any major traffic incidents, which statistics have 
shown, will occur. We will also be providing the highest level of 
service and safety to help our patients in the golden hour. 
 
The rescue/pumper will also support RIT and HazMat Operations. Recently,
 we have been training our members in RIT operations and have acquired 
new equipment to properly equip the team. We are pursuing the formation 
of reciprocal agreements with our mutual aid departments for RIT 
services. LVFD would make this vehicle available to any mutual aid 
department as a RIT response from us. Our district faces a high risk of 
HazMat incident everyday, with large amounts of hazardous materials 
being transported over our highways and the growing threat of terrorism 
and weapons of mass destruction. Our members are all trained to HazMat 
Operations level and can request Technician level responses from several
 Commonwealth HazMat teams. We will equip this vehicle with 
decontamination and spill control equipment to provide maximum support 
to these teams. 
 
As mentioned earlier, LVFD provides protection to the 650,000 square 
foot Berkshire Mall. The potential hazards this complex poses are 
numerous. With the growing threat of terrorism and the use of weapons of
 mass destruction and the recent start of war with Iraq, the potential 
for a terrorist attack is very real. An attack on the mall would likely 
inflict mass casualties and mass destruction. LVFD must be prepared to 
respond quickly and effectively. The addition of a multipurpose response
 vehicle would greatly enhance our capabilities in the event of such an 
attack. 
 
Local Funding Issues 
 
This project cannot be funded locally for several reasons. The state of 
Massachusetts is currently faced with a $2 billion dollar deficit and 
has begun laying out a plan to deal with this massive shortfall. Under 
this plan, the town will likely incur a cut in local aid of over 8%. 
This, together with a school budget increase of over 49%, will put a 
heavy strain on the taxpayers and town departments. Recently completed 
town capital improvement projects include the construction of a new 
elementary school and a water supply replacement and expansion. The town
 tax rate is among one of the highest in the county at $18.66 and rising.
 We had plans to purchase this vehicle with town funds, but were forced 
to purchase a new tanker last year to replace a 1978 government surplus 
tanker which suffered damages to its transmission to expensive to repair.
 Due to these budget restraints, we cannot fully fund a new primary 
apparatus to serve and protect the health and safety, property, and 
welfare of our community. Our current budget, as explained earlier, has 
to cover training, equipment purchases and upgrades, vehicle and 
equipment maintenance and repairs and utility costs. We have explored 
several fund raising ideas for a rescue/pumper, but the time demand on 
our members is high enough already. We view family life as a high 
priority and dont wish to add additional strain to anyones personal life.
 We do have the required matching funds to meet the matching funds 
requirement should we be honored with the funding for our application 
 
Additional Info 
 
Our primary concern is for the safety of our personnel on the scene of 
an incident. With the global threat of terrorism and weapons of mass 
destruction were faced with each day, it is essential that we outfit our
 personnel with the best possible equipment to make an effective and 
safe response to any incident. Currently, all our members are outfitted 
with new NFPA compliant gear (structural and forestry), SCBA, and we are
 fortunate enough to have equipment for almost any type of incident. All
 of the equipment to support multiple operations would be responding on 
one vehicle and would not require the response of several vehicles to 
get all the equipment to the scene. The addition of a rescue/pumper 
would allow us to maximize our response capabilities while at the same 
time minimize the potential of an accident involving responding 
emergency vehicles since fewer vehicles would be responding. We also 
felt that the benefit to surrounding departments was great enough to 
pursue this venture. Our overall goal is to guarantee the safety of all 
personnel and make sure everyone makes it home after each call. 
 
Budget Summary Detail 
 
2003 FORD 550 XL SUPER DUTY 4X4 DARLEY 
RESCUE PUMPER / NFPA 1901 PACKAGE / 3 MAN CAB 
12 POLY BODY/ ROLL OUT SHELVING   $100731 
 
DERRINGER COMPRESSED AIR FOAM SYSTEM   $39350 
HYDRAULIC GENERATOR 10 KW   $ 9000 
HYDRAULIC HOSE REELS (2) $ 9600 
8000lb ELECTRIC WINCH RECIEVER TYPE $ 1075 
CLASS IV HITCH FRONT & REAR $ 840 
ALPHA 2000 QUARTZ LIGHT W/TRIPOD(2)MOUNTED $ 2560 
WHELEN TRAFFIC ADVISOR $ 775 
200 ELECTRIC CORD REEL $ 1569 
 

TOTAL PROJECT PRICE $165500

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