Chris Lesser can battle a brush blaze without clamoring into a heavy-duty fire suit, and he can look for people inside a burning house without opening a window, breaking down a door or chopping through a wall.

All thanks to a federal homeland security grant.

“It’s a big boost,” said Lesser, chief of the Kanwaka Township Volunteer Fire Department. “It’s been real helpful. … For a lot of departments, especially smaller departments, the ability to be able to update equipment is something you may not be able to do as quickly as part of the normal budget process.”

Lesser’s purchase of more than a dozen sets of lightweight personal protective gear and an infrared thermal imaging camera came courtesy of a $20,000 grant from the federal government.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security oversees several programs pumping financial resources into local fire departments across the country. One program, known as the Fire Act, is poised to distribute 8,000 awards that will add up to $750 million.

“Through these funds, we will ensure that our nation’s emergency responders have the equipment and training they need to respond to all hazards,” said Tom Ridge, secretary of homeland security, in announcing the latest grants last month.

This year in Kansas, the program is pumping $3 million into new equipment and training for departments, many of them in rural areas. In the area around Lawrence:

• Jefferson County Fire District No. 11, $225,000 for a firefighting vehicle.
• L.O.H. Fire District in Ottawa, $193,500 for a firefighting vehicle.
• Leavenworth County Fire District No. 1, based in Lansing, $129,398 for operations and firefighter safety.

But the program isn’t the only one making a difference.

Chris Lesser, Kanwaka Township fire chief, displays the new firefighting gear, including face masks, fire-protective clothing and thermal imaging equipment, that was paid for by federal grants. The 0,000 grant bolstered the 0,000 annual budget of the department.

Bracing for terror

Other grants are intended to focus on bracing the country for terrorist attacks. Money for such protection is funneled from the federal department to the Kansas Highway Patrol, which authorizes counties to devise plans for spending their respective shares.

Last year, Douglas County spent more than $43,000 on equipment for fire services. Among the items purchased: battery chargers, chemical detectors, decontamination systems and a $10,425 portable water heater.

The acquisitions were part of the $2.1 million of that category of grant money spent in Kansas last year on fire services, considered among the collective first line of defense against disaster.

And rural districts are among the departments getting “the most bang for the buck,” said Capt. Mark Bruce, emergency operations coordinator for the Kansas Highway Patrol, which administers the program for the state.

From boosts to breathing equipment, he said, rural districts are buying basic equipment they’ve always needed but have struggled to finance.

“That’s one of the huge benefits with this program: Everything that we purchase, for the most part, has at least a dual-use application,” Bruce said. “It can benefit a department in day-to-day, routine operations, and it also is a benefit should an act of terrorism be perpetrated in this state.

“And that’s specifically what our grant program is for: Funds that come to the state’s Homeland Security Grant Program are funds earmarked specifically to build upon the state’s overall capabilities to respond to an act of terrorism.”

Collective breathing

Paula Phillips, Douglas County’s director of emergency management, said officials were starting a process to ensure that all firefighters in the county eventually would be working with compatible breathing equipment.

The move is intended to boost flexibility for departments when they respond to an emergency, whether it’s an accidental chemical spill or a calculated terrorist attack.

Spending $21,200 this year on such equipment will get the process started, Phillips said, but much work awaits.

“It would take $300,000 to do it all at once, so we have to do it in stages,” she said.

The state, too, is looking to standardize its benchmarks for spending the grant money, Bruce said. Officials are compiling standards for equipment and training needs among departments based upon their service populations, coverage responsibilities and other factors.

“This is a high-visibility issue, and Congress and federal agencies are trying to get funds out as quickly as possible to address gaps that we know exist,” Bruce said. “The difficulty in pushing that much money, that fast, is that the one thing that is lacking is the existence of any kind of standards.

“We want to make sure that we’re not wasting a penny, and that every penny spent is spent to enhance the state’s capability to protect itself.”