By Nathan Prewett
ARGO — At a meeting of the Argo City Council on Monday night, Argo Fire Chief Heath Smith announced the receiving of a $30,274 grant to purchase vehicle extrication equipment.
The grant was provided by the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation, an organization created by the founders of Firehouse Subs, Chris Sorensen and Robin Sorensen, to assist first-responders and public safety organizations. The idea came in 2005 when they traveled to New Orleans to feed people during Hurricane Katrina.
Smith said that Lt. Scott Payne approached him about applying for the grant, which he completed and sent to the foundation. The funds will go to extrication equipment that can be used to rescue victims of car accidents. Smith said that the equipment is battery-operated and can be ready to go when an accident is reported.
The department will purchase a cutter and a spreader that can be used to open closed spaces to free patients. Another is a ram that can pry open doors and other parts of a car where a patient is trapped in an accident
“It will cut down tremendously on the amount of time to actually extricate a patient out of a motor vehicle accident if we need to,” he said at the meeting. I think Scott deserves a lot of credit for the amount of work that he put into that. Without him this wouldn’t have been possible.”