How the Grant Has Helped:

Another of McAdoo's grant purchases was a thermal imaging camera. . . "The camera gave us the opportunity to put out the fire with very little damage to the building. It basically saved the whole apartment building and avoided about $90,000 worth of damages"

The McAdoo Fire Company, located in east-central Pennsylvania, serves the Borough of McAdoo, which has a population of approximately 2,200, and participates in a mutual aid system that covers three counties, including Schuylkill County (about 150,000 residents), where McAdoo is located. McAdoo also covers its section of Interstate 81, a heavily traveled highway made especially hazardous at times by dense fog, strong winds, and severe winter weather conditions. In March 2004, a 12-car pileup, later blamed on fog, occurred on the section of highway near McAdoo. They receive more than 400 EMS calls and between 150 to 200 fire calls each year.

McAdoo's grant-funded thermal imaging camera identified a smoldering fire in the walls of this apartment house, enabling firefighters to save the building from further damage.

In 2002, McAdoo received a grant from the AFG Program for fire operations and safety equipment and protective gear." One of the biggest differences the grant has made," says Captain Daniel Leshko of the McAdoo Fire Company, "is giving us the opportunity to purchase and upgrade equipment and protective clothing and gear years ahead of what we would have been able to do otherwise. We used to stretch out use of the clothes so they would last year after year." Thanks to the grant, all of McAdoo's 35 firefighters have complete sets of protective clothing and gear, including jackets, pants, and helmets, that are comply with 2002 standards.

Another of McAdoo's grant purchases was a thermal imaging camera. The camera has had a major impact by helping to identify fires that are hidden from view inside of walls and roofs. Leshko describes an incident in which McAdoo firefighters were working a fire at an apartment building. Using the camera, they were able to identify a fire smoldering inside one of the walls and isolate the precise location of the fire. They then opened the section of wall affected and put out the fire. "Without the camera," says Leshko, "we would have had to tear apart the walls" until they found the fire. "The camera gave us with the opportunity to put out the fire with very little damage to the building. It basically saved the whole apartment building and avoided about $90,000 worth of damages," he observes.

McAdoo firefighters responding to a call.

Twenty fire departments participate in McAdoo's mutual aid system, and those that cannot afford a camera of their own can use the McAdoo camera. McAdoo benefits from this system also. "We don't have a tanker truck, "says Leshko, "but we can borrow one from another fire company when we need one."

With the same AFG grant, McAdoo obtained an automatic defibrillator. "The biggest killer of firefighters in the line of duty is heart attacks," says Leshko, who is also chief medical officer for the McAdoo Ambulance Association. McAdoo firefighters bring an automatic defibrillator to the scene of every fire. "The faster you can defibrillate someone, the better the chances are that you will save him," comments Leshko.

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