Firehouse Subs has donated a 36-foot trailer for Technical Rescue Teams worth more than $15,000 to the Asheville Fire Department in memory of local firefighter Captain Jeffery Bowen. The trailer, otherwise unavailable due to budget constraints, will serve as a central location for rescue equipment, allowing for a more rapid response in the event of an emergency.
‘It will allow us to keep a lot of specialized rescue equipment in one place and deploy it where it’s needed fast,” said Kelley Webb of Asheville Fire and Rescue. “This will have things which would be beyond the normal scale of our trucks, things like SCUBA, high-angle rope rescue, fast-water rescue, large building collapses, cave rescues, you know, the kind of things that don’t come up much, but we have to consider.”
The department already has much of the gear for the trailer, but some is still to be acquired through other grants. Once operational, the trailer will be located at a fire station, and when needed brought to the scene of an emergency like any other apparatus. The trailer will also be available throughout the area for mutual aid to other departments or agencies.
In Henderson County, Firehouse Subs purchased 19 Automated External Defibrillators (AED) and 100 emergency procedure guides worth $21,974. The AEDs will ensure the county’s public schools are prepared to provide life-saving assistance if an individual goes into cardiac arrest. Together the donated equipment and guides will help to ensure the safety of students and employees throughout the 23 schools in the area.
Launched in 2005, the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation is dedicated to better equip, educate, and fund public safety entities..Since 2005, Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation has donated more than $300,000 to public safety entities in North Carolina.
