ST. PAUL – The Town and County of St. Paul have approved using $20,000 from the joint use fire reserve account to help the St. Paul Fire Department purchase approximately $94,000 worth of new battery-operated rescue tools.
During the Town of St. Paul’s council meeting on Dec. 9, Fire Chief Trevor Kotowich said the fire department needs to replace its nearly 20-year-old hydraulic rescue tools.
In addition to being old, the current tools, due to being hydraulic driven, have faced challenges in extreme cold weather, he explained. “Sometimes the tools don't action the way we want them to,” he explained.
Deputy Fire Chief Henry Thomson, in a follow-up with Lakeland This Week, explained battery-operated rescue tools differ from hydraulic rescue tools on how they generate power to operate.
Hydraulic tools require a gasoline engine that provides hydraulic power through hoses connected to the tools. Meanwhile, battery-operated tools have an electric pump built right into the tool itself, “that produces that high pressure hydraulic fluid.”
Thomson said key advantages of battery-operated tools include being more powerful, as well as being more compact and quicker to deploy, since they do not require connecting hoses from a separate power source.
Kotowich also told Lakeland This Week that the St. Paul Firefighters Association, a non-profit group, committed up to $30,000 for the equipment and the fire department has applied for a provincial grant to cover the remaining $44,277 balance.
“If we are not successful with the provincial grant application, this project will not go ahead as planned for replacement in September 2025, and fundraising efforts would have to continue with hopes of replacement later in 2026, or even 2027,” noted Kotowich.
