Altoona Sunrise Rotary awards $4,500 grant to United Fire Department

Altoona Sunrise Rotary supports Community Service Projects each year.

This year’s Community Grant is awarded to advanced fire emergency to handle modern technology fire suppression.

Two Electric Vehicle Fire Suppression Blankets will be purchased and maintained by United Fire Department, located at 611 Grandview Road, Logan Township.

These blankets will be made available to any Blair County Fire Department, both career and volunteer.

Replacement of used blankets will be paid by vehicle owner’s insurance or hazardous materials incident funding.

Electric Vehicle fires are often aggressive, difficult to contain using conventional fire suppression methods, release toxins and carcinogens in the air and ground, and can take thousands and thousands of gallons of water to extinguish.

The blanket can be deployed over the vehicle to contain a potential fire, increasing the safety potential for on-scene emergency responders, preventing the release of toxic chemicals from entering the environment and also to decrease the temperature of the fire from 5,000 to 1,000.

The project will provide safety to those who come in direct contact EV fires, and to the members of the community who might be exposed to toxins associated with EV fires.