The Kenai City Council passed an ordinance for the purchase of extrication equipment needed to provide emergency response to motor vehicle accidents. The Fire Department recently took its Hurst Jaws of Life Cutter and Spreader out of service due to hose failures and the equipment is cited as critical to performing extrication of entrapped people involved in vehicular accidents.
City Manager Paul Ostrander:
“This sole source purchase is issued here; LN Curtis and Sons is the only provider of this product in the state of Alaska. That justifies the sole source itself. As far as why this piece of equipment, interoperability with our neighboring departments is something that is important. I know that was one of the deciding factors in going with this equipment.”
Chief Tony Prior said:
“LN Curtis supplies the Hurst units and those are the ones that we’ve had longstanding with the department. We’ve had great success with them. Both of our neighboring departments use that same brand. So if we had a multiple casualty or if we had a major incident, they would be able to grab our equipment and fill in and actually use the same piece of equipment with familiarity with it.”
Prior said that the new equipment is battery operated:
“The batteries do last a long time. For instance, we’ve just had some extrication training that we went over to beacon and used. We cut a car up all day and, for over three hours, we were able to use a single battery on one of the tools and didn’t run out. The batteries have come a long way. We have total confidence in those. We do actually have, or will be getting extra batteries for those we’ll be able to use in case they do happen to run out. They have been tested throughout the state in very cold weather and great success with these.”
According to Ostrander, a supplemental appropriation of $25,709 is requested to make the purchase. Ordinance 3230-2021 unanimously passed the Kenai City Council.