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Photo submitted by Peter Willott – Palatka Fire Department and Firehouse Subs officials stand with the extrication tools the department bought using a grant from the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation.
Officials earlier this week celebrated the Palatka Fire Department receiving a grant that allowed them to purchase life-saving equipment worth nearly $40,000.
On Wednesday, firefighters showed off the three extrication tools, commonly referred to as the Jaws of Life, at Firehouse Subs, 506 State Road 19 in Palatka. Although the celebration took place this week, the fire department received the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation grant and got the new equipment in September, Fire Chief Chris Taylor said Thursday.
It may have been the first time city officials showed off their equipment, but it wasn’t their first time using the devices, which free people trapped inside their vehicles after collisions.
“We’ve already used it on a couple of calls,” Taylor said.
The extrication devices, the cost of which totaled $39,029, are perfect to use in Palatka and surrounding areas because they can be used on land and in saltwater and freshwater, he said.
If someone is trapped in the St. Johns River or one of the lakes in the area, Taylor said, Palatka firefighters can use the Jaws of Life to save lives.
Taylor is grateful for the Firehouse grant because the extrication tools the department was using previously weren’t as advanced as the three new pieces of equipment. Without the grant, he said, department officials did not know how they would afford better tools.
“It was great,” Taylor said of receiving the grant. “It was something we needed, but we didn’t have the money for it. With the river being brackish, it’s great to have that (grant).”
The Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation is a nonprofit organization former firefighters Chris and Robin Sorensen launched after traveling to Mississippi to feed first responders and survivors immediately following Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
The organization is based in Jacksonville, where the Sorensens live, and has awarded $12,132,893 in grants in Florida as of Thursday evening, according to firehousesubsfoundation.org.
Palatka’s grant may have come from a Jacksonville-based group, Taylor said, but Putnam County residents are also responsible for the department’s good fortune.
Firehouse in Palatka gives customers the option to round up the cost of their order to the nearest dollar. The money collected from the add-ons goes to the foundation, Taylor said.
“It is our community that funded this in one way or another,” he said. “Our citizens shopping at Firehouse Subs and rounding that dollar up, or whatever, is how we got that equipment.”
The Firehouse grant is one of many the fire department has received. Since being sworn in as the fire chief in January 2021, Taylor said, he has applied for up to five grants per year. Most of the applications have been successful, he said.
The equipment purchased and training undergone because of grant funds is part of the reason the Palatka Fire Department recently scored a 2 in the Insurance Services Office ratings, Taylor said. The scores – which range from 1 to 10, with 1 being the best – are indicators of a fire department’s efficiency, preparation and abilities.
Taylor credits firefighters and other employees for the city maintaining a 2 and hopes to improve to the best possible score. He believes the department can do that by purchasing a new HAZMAT firetruck, hoses and other sorely needed equipment.
He is already working on more grant applications in the hopes of making those purchases.
“We’re just doing what’s required of us,” Taylor said of the reason his department scored as well as it did. “We make sure we’re hitting both of these (Insurance Services Office and state) standards. It’s fantastic. I give the credit to the guys. I think it’s great, and it sets the benchmark.”
