WEST HAVEN, Conn. — A life-saving rehabilitation unit is coming to the West Haven Fire Department with the help of a nearly $648,000 federal grant.
“It’s like a big rescue unit and the main components, it’s going to have heat, it’s going to have air conditioning, and proper nutrients that the firefighters might need,” said Deputy Chief Ron Pisani with the West Haven Fire Department.
Pisani said the unit will look similar to an ambulance but on a larger scale to hold more people. It will also come with medical monitoring equipment to check the pulse and blood pressure of the firefighters as well as onboard oxygen to use when responding to fires in dangerous conditions.
“The biggest factor of firefighter death is the heart. Heart attacks, high blood pressure, and what that could lead to is a heart attack even up to a day later,” Pisani said.
When using the unit, Pisani said those vitals will have to be at a certain level before the men and women return to the scene.
He said the unit will also serve as a source of respite to get out of the elements, whether firefighters are out in a heat wave or below zero temps.
“These firemen, it doesn’t matter what temperature it is, it could be below freezing, their gear is actually frozen to them, or it could be in the heat where they’re fighting heat exhaustion,” Pisani said.
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal said the unit will come with decontamination capability to wash down their gear right away, rather than waiting to get back to the firehouse.
“A firefighter going into a burning building is going to be contaminated with all kinds of chemicals, PFAS, that uniform reeks of deadly contaminants. Better to decontaminate on the site,” Blumenthal said at Monday’s announcement of the federal funding.
The contamination and health risks are something that runs through the minds of firefighter EMT’s like Steven Beckwith, who’s been working for the West Haven Fire Department for more than two years.
“Not only does it get back here, where we try and wash the gear right away. But now you have to think about, ‘Hey, I was around this all day, now I have to go home. Am I bringing this back to my family?’ Because that’s the last thing…I know I signed up and know the risks, last thing I want to do is extend that to my family potentially get them sick now too,” Beckwith said.
Beckwith is following in the footsteps of his grandfather, who served as the assistant fire chief in the West Shore Fire District.
“Unfortunately, he passed away when I was extremely young. He did end up getting cancer, and most likely from being on the job,” Beckwith said.
Now, he said this new unit will help him and his peers get ahead of the fate so many firefighters have faced.
“Any steps we can take to stop this devastating disease that people get, hey, why not try,” Beckwith said.
“We only have fourteen men here and we don’t have the luxury of 30, 40 firefighters at the scene. So, 100% we have to take care of them,” Pisani said.
As for the timeline on when the department will get the unit, Pisani said there’s been years-long wait times on other apparatuses, and they hope they don’t face the same here. However, he said they do plan to expedite the design phase because of those long wait times, which should be completed within the next couple of months.
Julia LeBlanc is a reporter at FOX61 News. She can be reached at jleblanc@fox61.com Follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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