YFD gets $400,000 grant

YOUNGSTOWN — U.S. Senator George V. Voinovich announced that the Youngstown Fire Department has received $400,000 from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program Award.

“Our firefighters need the proper resources to protect their communities,” Voinovich said. “I’ve urged the Department of Homeland Security to do more to support our first responders on the local level and I’m pleased to see it’s happening.”

Voinovich is a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which oversees DHS. He helped write the legislation creating the new agency in 2002. Each year, Voinovich diligently advocates the funding for DHS grants through the appropriations process, according to a press release.

Fire Chief John J. O’Neill Jr. said he’s very happy with the grant and his department will use the money to buy a ladder truck that costs around $500,000 and house it at the fire station on Belle Vista Avenue. He said it’s a matching grant, with the city putting in the remaining $100,000. Without the grant, the department could not afford the new truck that should be here by next fall, he said.

O’Neill said his department has been sending in grant applications each year since 2002. Over the years, the department has been awarded grants that enabled it to buy a heavy rescue truck, diesel exhaust systems to get fumes out of stations and air packs.