$9G grant for Marblehead Fire Dept.

MARBLEHEAD-Homeland Security continues to help the Marblehead Fire Department.Fire Chief Jason Gilliland told selectmen Wednesday that his department is scheduled to receive a $9,000 grant from the Homeland Security 2009 Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program.?We will use the grant to fund the purchase of four new automatic external defibrillators,” Gilliland said.U.S. Rep. John Tierney, D-Salem, informed the Marblehead firefighters of the impending grant. The defibrillators will cost $10,000, but Marblehead will only pay $1,000 because of the grant.Gilliland noted that the 2009 grant is the sixth that the Marblehead Fire Department has received in the past seven years.Last year firefighters received a $27,000 Homeland Security grant that provided 90 percent of the cost of three new thermal imaging cameras and accessories. The cost of the cameras was $30,000. Homeland Security provided $27,000 and the Fire Department paid $3,000,Thermal imaging turns waves of energy into heat signatures, which Bullard, the supplier of the cameras, calls “heat pictures.” Hot objects emit more energy than cold objects, so hot objects create white images, cold ones create black images and those in between are shown in shades of grey. A human being with a fire behind him or her will photograph as black.In 2008 the department purchased new generators that provide back-up power at the town?s two stations, and new portable radios to help firefighters communicate with each other.Gilliland used his letter to selectmen to publicly thank Fire Lt. Greg McLaughlin for taking on the duties of researching and writing grant applications for the Fire Department.Lt. McLaughlin accepted that responsibility following the January retirement of the department?s former grant writer, Capt. Richard Bartlett.?The (Homeland Security) grant was (a response to) Lt. McLaughlin?s first grant-writing effort and he is to be commended for his hard work in what is considered to be a very competitive grant process,” Chief Gilliland said.