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Fire department seeks permission to surplus aging SCBA flow-testing machine
Summary
Radcliff fire staff asked the council to approve surplusing a more-than-20-year-old flow-testing machine used for SCBA checks, citing annual calibration costs of $1,400 and potential vendor maintenance alternatives; no formal approval was recorded at the work session.
A fire department representative asked the council at the Feb. 5 work session for approval to surplus an aging 'AussieCheck' flow-testing machine used to validate self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) performance.
The representative said the machine is more than 20 years old, costs about $1,400 a year to keep calibrated, and that department service work (including annual flow testing) is supported by an MSA vendor. He described how the machine uses a mannequin head and computer to push air through face masks and confirm low-pressure alarms and flow rates.
Fire staff said they upgraded to a newer SCBA model three years ago and currently lack in‑house technicians trained to service the older machine. They presented a ballpark replacement cost of roughly $20,000 if the city needed to buy new flow-testing equipment and suggested it would be better to transfer the old unit to a smaller agency that could use it or rely on the vendor for testing to avoid ongoing liability.
No formal council vote to surplus the equipment was taken during the work session; staff indicated they would pursue potential recipients or vendor service options.
