Finance committee approves $21,180 transfer to buy battery-powered ventilation fans for Tuscaloosa Fire Rescue

The Tuscaloosa City Council Finance Committee on an unnumbered date approved a $21,180 transfer from insurance proceeds into the Tuscaloosa Fire Rescue equipment line to purchase four battery-powered positive pressure ventilation (PPV) fans.

The committee adopted the budget revision after a brief presentation from the city’s budget staff and a short operational explanation from Chief Delk of Tuscaloosa Fire Rescue. The funds are leftover insurance proceeds related to recent fire-damage claims to uniforms, the presenter said. The motion to approve passed on a voice vote.

The committee heard that the new PPV fans are battery powered, lighter-weight and interoperable with equipment batteries already used on other rescue tools. Chief Delk told the committee the fans ‘‘are lighter weight. One guy can get them off the truck’’ and that the department’s current gas-powered fans have ‘‘constant[ly] having issues with carburetors’’ when they are not run frequently. The change is described as a maintenance and reliability improvement: the new fans will equip more than half of the city’s engine companies (the presenter said ‘‘get over half 8 out of 12, of our engines with these new PPV fans’’).

Committee members asked for questions; none were raised beyond the operational explanation. A motion and second were recorded and the committee approved the revision by voice vote.

The transfer was described as using leftover insurance proceeds previously earmarked for other replacement items; the committee noted some of the larger ventilation fans will remain on ladder trucks for major incidents while the portable battery units will be used by engine companies for smaller smoke or extinguishing incidents.

Votes at a glance: the committee approved the revision on a voice vote; no roll-call tally was recorded in the transcript.