Fire department details training, pipeline and equipment grants; $49,476 equipment award requires council accept-and-expend
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Summary
Officials told the Boston City Council committee that federal and state grants are funding expanded training, pipeline response and marine exercises; a $49,476 FY26 equipment grant for reach poles, elevator-rescue kits and carbon-monoxide detectors was awarded and awaits council accept-and-expend.
Boston Fire Department officials told a Council Committee on Public Safety and Criminal Justice on March 31 that a set of federal and state grants is funding expanded training, marine and pipeline response exercises, forensic-lab improvements and targeted equipment purchases — and that the council will need to accept and expend some awards.
Julie Devon, the department’s financial grants manager, said the department is administering 13 active awards (eight federal, five state) totaling more than $4 million. She said the department was awarded a FY26 Department of Fire Services equipment grant this morning that requires council accept-and-expend and totals $49,476 to buy 24 reach-pole systems, elevator-rescue kits and to replace 36 carbon-monoxide detectors attached to company respirator medical bags across the department’s 57 companies.
Devon said the department received over $200,000 under the Port Security Grant Program for shipboard and marine training and has a FY25 award pending council accept-and-expend to run a second iteration of marine-command training. She described a Fiscal Year 25 pipeline emergency response grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation totaling $99,000 to train command-level responders and run a crisis-management tabletop exercise related to an identified Enbridge high-pressure natural gas transmission line in West Roxbury.
‘‘There’s 4.1 miles of a 16-inch natural gas pipeline that operates at 750 PSI,’’ District Chief Keith Kelly said, describing the West Roxbury line’s characteristics and the turnover among on-the-ground crews who have not trained on that infrastructure since it was installed in 2018. He and Devon said the pipeline grant will fund training for roughly 78 students — likely district and deputy chiefs — and involve multiagency coordination including police, the Mayor’s Office of Emergency Management and Boston Public Health Commission.
Devon also described two Coverdell Forensic Science Improvement grants (FY23 and FY24) passed through the Massachusetts State Police that helped the department pursue accreditation with the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation; she said the lab has one employee and that accreditation assessment is the next phase.
State earmarks received in FY26 include $1.7 million to support the fire-training academy, $1.4 million for the HAZMAT team and a new $100,000 ‘‘Delta unit’’ earmark for seasonal emergency-service vehicles assigned to Castle Island, Pleasure Bay and Carson Beach. Devon said the department also applied for an Advancing Massachusetts Power Safety and Education grant to fund stored-energy emergency-response training and worked with the public facilities department on a capital grant request to repair the Moon Island seawall.
Councilors asked staff to bring the port-security and equipment grants forward for council action at upcoming meetings given short procurement timelines; Devon said the equipment grant expires June 30, 2026 and that procurement will need to proceed quickly. Chair Henry Santana closed the hearing after announcing no public testimony had been scheduled.
The hearing produced no votes; council follow-up will focus on accept-and-expend requests and on whether recurring training and equipment needs should be folded into operating budgets to reduce grant dependency.
