Three awards will pay for mobile alerting platform equipment and personal bailout kits.

The Erie Bureau of Fire has obtained new equipment to help speed up their response to emergency calls and to help save firefighters from dangerous situations through a series of grants.

Erie Mayor Joe Schember joined city fire officials and others at the Erie Central Fire Station for his weekly news conference on Thursday morning to announce the bureau’s receipt of what he called three “technology improvement and safety grants” totaling $89,500.

The grants were obtained through the efforts of Erie fire Captain Matt Costello with the help of Abby Skinner, the city’s grant writer, Schember said.

A $5,000 grant from CSX Transportation will allow the bureau to place nine iPads in all of its front-line fire engines to connect with the Bryx mobile alerting platform, which the bureau started using in July 2019, Costello said. The platform “provides fast, enhanced communications between our fire dispatch center and our firefighters,” and its features include turn-by-turn navigation, information on addresses and the nature of calls, and hydrant sizes, he said.

Data sent to the iPads arrives via the AT&T FirstNet platform, Costello added.

A second grant totaling $72,500 provided by multiple sources, including Hamot Health Foundation, will allow the fire bureau to place the same Bryx technology in all of the city’s fire stations, Costello said.

A third grant, for $12,000, was obtained through the Lt. Joseph P. Dibernardo Memorial Foundation. The money was used to purchase personal bailout kits, which will allow firefighters to escape hazardous situations in an emergency when their area of exit is cut off, Costello said.

The kits consist of 50 feet of heat-resistant rope, a descent device and a specialized hook. Each costs $262, “and it’s a life insurance policy for our firefighters,” he said.

Erie Fire Chief Joe Walko also spoke at Thursday morning’s news conference to outline a $539,636 grant the city received from the Federal Emergency Management Agency that will be used to purchase new oxygen tanks, self-contained breathing apparatus units and a new cascade tank filling system.

Contact Tim Hahn at thahn@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNhahn.