The Round Rock City Council on Thursday night approved an ordinance for the Round Rock Fire Department to buy a machine to clean and decontaminate the air tanks used by firefighters.
The new machine from Rescue Intellitech Inc., will cost $81,900.
“They are the only company I know of that has the machine that is authorized to clean our air packs,” said fire Chief Robert Isbell.
The new machine, called a solo rescue breathing apparatus washer, will allow for a more thorough, efficient and safe cleaning after each call rather than the firefighters cleaning them by hand.
“Decontaminating the air pack itself has always been cumbersome,” Isbell said. “It takes about 30 minutes of hand washing in order to get into all of the parts of it to get it clean, but with this machine, it will not only wash it, but decontaminate, too, in about a five-minute period.”
Isbell said the Fire Department was approached by Travis County at the start of the pandemic while it was in search of personal protective equipment.
“We all looked into the air packs because we knew these were the hard, resilient piece we can wear for respiratory protection,” Isbell said.
The Fire Department has about 80 air tanks that each firefighter wears when entering a fire. Isbell said they partnered with the county for them to wear as a protection during COVID-19.
“We not only loaned them 10 of our air packs, but we also trained them on how to wear them in the field,” Isbell said. “Big kudos to the county for not only seeing the benefit of using the air packs, but maintaining them.”
Round Rock Council Member Will Peckham acknowledged Isbell’s efforts with the ongoing pandemic.
“I’m glad to see we are coming to this with everything going with COVID,” Peckham said. “You have been able to think outside the box so I want to commend you and your staff.”
The council also approved a contract for improvements on Round Rock’s water treatment plans and a resolution to continue to move forward on the construction of Gattis School Road Phase 3 improvements.
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