AVFD Raising Funds for Rescue Squad

To the untrained eye, Squad 354 looks like a massive gleaming piece of firefighting apparatus.

"It's a big tool box," explained John McDowell, president of the .

Squad 354, acquired in 1993 for about $256,000, has been worked hard and reached the limit of its useful service life, he said.

AVFD is embarking on a fundraising effort to buy a replacement rescue vehicle, which is expected to cost about $750,000.

Squad 354 carries equipment used for extrication and rescue-cutting tools, ropes, wood blocks to shore up unstable structures, inflatable devices that can lift tons.

"It's the specialty piece, used for everything from water rescue or rappelling in Patapsco State Park to getting into a roof or taking off a door," McDowell said. "We use it any time somebody is entrapped or entangled."

The heavy-duty squad is deployed on 200-300 calls a year. While the odometer only reads 56,000 miles, through routine use the vehicle is subjected to abuse such as rapid accelerations and stops, with metal parts stressed by the gravitational extremes of turns.

"Those are hard miles" that eventually take a toll on an emergency vehicle, said Norman V. Simpkins Jr., AVFD's senior first lieutenant.

Twenty years is about as long as fire equipment lasts, and Squad 354's number is about up.

McDowell said that AVFD would like to replace the rescue vehicle in time for the department's 75th anniversary in 2013.

To launch the fundraising effort, AVFD has reached out to about 1,300 members of the business community within the department's primary coverage area. This extends from I-70 to the Anne Arundel County line and from Patapsco State Park to the city line.

"We're inviting them down to the station to educate them about the squad," McDowell said. "It's a broad effort to reach out to all businesses."

On Wednesday, May 23, AVFD is sponsoring a noon lunch and dinner at 6 p.m. for area business people to visit the station and learn about the fire department and the need for a new squad.

McDowell said the department is having two events to give business people the option of attending a midday or evening meal.

More information about the squad is at AVFD's web site. Business people interested in the May 23 event can RSVP online.