Through the hard work and perseverance of firefighters, who over the course of nine months raised significant funds through various fundraising efforts over the spring, summer and fall, Boothbay Fire & Rescue recently presented a check to the town of Boothbay and selectman Chuck Cunningham for $12,000. These funds were presented to the town to help defray the cost of new Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) which was used to equip five fire firefighters.

The new gear replaces equipment that was on average 15-20 years old and was in dire need of replacement. Firefighters require this gear to penetrate burning structures, search for potential victims, and to perform fire suppression activities in order to save residential and commercial structures. Firefighters frequently experience temperatures in burning buildings that exceed 800 degrees and with visibility that is often greatly restricted in smoke and steam.

This new PPE reflects the latest in firefighter personal safety equipment, including improved thermal protection, enhanced reflective tape and visibility to improve firefighter situational awareness and safety harnesses embedded in the jackets that allow an injured or incapacitated firefighter to be rescued and evacuated from the building.

Boothbay firefighters held several fundraising events, including a cornhole event that was attended by over 300 residents from throughout the peninsula, bottle drives and community education sessions.

In addition to the PPE purchase, money raised through these fundraising efforts was used by Boothbay Fire to purchase $3,600 of waterproof and reflective yellow safety gear for individual firefighters. This new gear, which is used at accidents scenes and in long duration events such as winter storms, will allow the traveling public to quickly identify firefighters at incidents, thereby improving safety and awareness for all, and keeping firefighters warm and dry.

Cunningham said “On behalf of the town selectman and management, and all the citizens, we are so grateful for the dedication of these Boothbay Firefighters to keep our community safe and secure. They work largely unseen and are our neighbors. The sacrifices they make to do what they do are not forgotten. It’s amazing to see what they were able to do to raise this money, and to help defray the cost of purchasing new safety equipment. We are all extremely fortunate to live in such an amazing community and region where the residents and local businesses support our firefighters and first responders.”

Chief David Pratt said “I am very proud of our firefighters who worked tirelessly starting in April straight through to November to raise this money. From our summer cornhole and community education events, to bottle collections, whatever it took they worked as a team to do it. However, none of this would have been possible without the incredible support from local businesses and individuals. Our firefighters are volunteers, on call 24/7 and we often don’t have a chance to interact with the public because of the danger of our fire and rescue scenes which are cordoned off. But to see the outpouring of support for the department, and to be able to use this money to purchase badly need firefighter equipment was so very much appreciated by the 31 members of Boothbay Fire. We have also established a dedicated team of firefighters that will be focusing year-round on community education and raising money to support the procurement of lifesaving equipment and fire and rescue capabilities.”