Brighton Fire Dept. buys rescue equipment

BRIGHTON — The Brighton Volunteer Firefighter's Association say the group has surpassed its fundraising goal and ordered a combination rescue tool. The device is colloquially known by the brand name, “Jaws of Life.”

Brighton Fire Chief Bill Farmer said the equipment — used to pry open vehicles with occupants trapped inside — would save lives.

“Right now the Brighton Fire Department doesn’t have anything like the Jaws of Life, so we have to either wait on Richland, Wayland, Fairfield or Washington, which is a minimum of a 10-minute delay,” he said. “Ten minutes, if someone’s bleeding pretty bad, could be a matter of life and death.”

The department thanked the community for fundraising in a statement on social media.

“With a very generous donation of $4,000 from Premier 1 Supplies and the support at our breakfast, we were able to do this,” read a post on the group’s Facebook page. “The Brighton Volunteer Fire Department will now have access to this tool in case of need without waiting on a neighboring department. There are many more tool available to use in rescue but, at $9,000-$12,000 each, we will go one step at a time.”

Farmer said the equipment cost close to $12,000 and would take around eight weeks to arrive. While it takes some training to operate, he said crews would be able to put the basics to use as soon as the device came to town.

“We’ve all been around it a little bit, but you can’t train too much,” he said. “I would say we’d be able to use it for some simple things, but as far as the more technical things, we’re going to want to be able to do some training on it.”

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