Fire department to purchase new fire safety house

by Melissa Martin

Sept. 5 township trustees meeting

Trustees unanimously approved the purchase of a new fire safety house from Inflatable Images in Brunswick for $6,200.

The inflatable house will replace the original fire safety house the township purchased in conjunction with Granger and Sharon Townships more than two decades ago and is now in a state of disrepair, Fire Chief Jestin Grossenbaugh told trustees.

“It is completely falling apart,” he said.

The new inflatable, Grossenbaugh said, will no longer be shared amongst the three townships and will only be used by the Hinckley fire department at community events that take place in the township.

“I like the idea [of it being our own],” he said. “We use it during Touch-a-Truck and we plan to do a couple of safety fairs around the community next year like we did pre-pandemic,” he said.

This year’s Touch-a-Truck event is scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 1.

Grossenbaugh said the Fire Safety Association has agreed to split the cost of the unit with the department, which means the township’s share of the unit will be approximately $3,100.

Trustees also approved the purchase of $1,800 in materials to be purchased from Home Depot that will be used to construct a storage room in the fire department’s training facility.

Grossenbaugh said the Hinckley Firefighters Association funded the installation of a new concrete floor in the building and the department received a grant from Home Depot to build the inside of the building up as a training facility. He said the building’s roof was donated and installed by Hinckley Roofing and the fire association has agreed to purchase and install a garage door at the facility.

The new storage room, Grossenbaugh said, will allow the fire department to store excess bulk equipment, medical supplies, hazardous materials there is no room to store in the station.

“We’ve talked about this before, but we don’t have enough storage in the fire station for certain things, so I’d like to make a storage room,” he said.

Grossenbaugh said relocating those materials will allow the fire department to convert the station’s storeroom to house bins of active shooter kits, water rescue kits and other items firefighters need to access when responding in emergency situations.

“This way, the guys can grab them, throw them in the pickup truck and respond instead of everything just being crammed into the storage room,” he said.

Trustee Melissa Augustine said she is glad to see the storage facility “come to fruition.”

In other business, Grossenbaugh said the department plans to donate 17 used self-contained breathing apparatus packs, cylinders and air masks to the Medina County Career Center firefighter training program. He said the department recently replaced these devices and the old units no longer are of any value to the department.

“As part of the grant, the department had the option to retire or donate the equipment,” he said, adding that the department will, however, retain the rapid intervention pack, which has a universal connection when assisting other departments. “The instructor says [the program only has] old, old units now, ones that are even past the point of being used, so these will really help them out.” ∞