A survey of over 35 fire departments in Rhode Island shows many agencies could not afford gear washers and extractors without outside funding assistance.
“Any fire we encounter in town has a high level of carcinogens, anything from soot to the products of combustion that collect in our gear, on ourselves,” Narragansett Fire Marshal Kevin Tuthill told WPRI.
Larger cities, like Cranston and Providence and Cranston, have outfitted all of their stations with washers and extractors.
The report found that many departments, including Central Falls, Little Compton and Woonsocket could only purchase the equipment with help from Fire Act grants.
In many communities, a department may only have one washer and it's shared between all their stations.
A FEMA grant will provide the bulk of the $248,000 needed by Providence to upgrade their equipment.
Departments in Barrington, East Providence, Exeter, and Scituate are among those who we able to fund the purchases from their budgets.
The West Glocester Fire District indicated that they use a resident washer and dryer.
Some stations do not wash their PPE because they are not connected to a municipal septic system that can clean the containments in the water.
Others use cleaning services to keep their PPE cleaned.Narragansett Chief Scott Partington said they will wash their gear at incident scenes and share their single extractor to dry the gear.
