Fire departments get new equipment with federal funds

Three Long Island fire departments are getting new equipment thanks to funding from the federal American Rescue Plan Act.

The Town of Babylon allocated $388,263 from its share of federal funds to help the Wyandanch Fire Department purchase a new ladder truck, and to acquire LUCAS devices for the West Babylon and North Lindenhurst Fire departments.

“The opportunity to obtain this equipment means a lot to us,” Chief Jarvis Brown of the Wyandanch Fire Department, said in a written statement. “Wyandanch has a bunch of high-rise buildings in the area, and a new ladder truck with the latest safety accessories gives us the ability to operate better and faster than we did before.”

The LUCAS devices, which assist with the performance of CPR, are important lifesavers when dealing with cardiac arrest.

“The number of rescue calls in the West Babylon Fire District increases without fail every year, and many of those calls are cardiac arrests,” Commissioner John Manzi of the West Babylon Fire District, said in the statement. “The LUCAS device obtained with the ARPA funding will become the district’s third and be placed in the south ambulance. The device will enable the south ambulance to respond to cardiac arrest calls immediately, rather than depending on a response from the first responder car or north ambulance with LUCAS devices.”

North Lindenhurst Fire Department Chief Kenneth M. Stallone Jr. said the devices will increase the chance of survival significantly. 

“Studies have shown that consistent high-quality CPR through all phases of patient transport produces a much higher success rate in recovering from cardiac arrest,” he said.