Lufkin City Council approves funding for fire department

LUFKIN, Texas (KTRE) - Lufkin City Council has approved funding for Lufkin’s Fire Department, and with the help of two grants, they can get the proper tools they need.

Lufkin Fire Chief Jesse Moody said, “I applied for the grant through CenterPoint. The Koch Foundation, they just come and award that to us yearly, and so they did increase the amount of it this year. It has been $8,000 in the past. It’s $10,000 this year.”

Moody says both grants were originally designated for fire or training equipment, but they decided to use them for multi-gas detectors.

“It really helps us out a lot with our equipment, especially unpredictable equipment expenses, and this was one of those. We never know when a manufacturer is going to stop servicing an item that we already have, so that causes us to have to buy a new one,” said Moody.

He explains how much the detectors come in handy stating, “they detect flammability, oxygen in the air, as well as H2S which is known as sewer gas.”

He says a lot of the calls from the general public are usually natural gas leaks or possible carbon monoxide.

Typically, when the alarm goes off, they go out to see if there is a problem and where it is located.

“The censors on them and the equipment reaches, where they’re not supporting it anymore and we have gas detectors, but all of ours are expiring, and so we have to get new ones,” said Moody.

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