(Red Oak) The Southwest Iowa Squadron of Heroes has taken on a major project for 2021 to supply a ballistic vest protection device to each of Montgomery County’s Fire and EMS providers.
The Departments included will cover full time and volunteers at Elliott Fire and First Responders, Grant Fire and First Responders, Red Oak Fire, Red Oak Ambulance, Stanton Fire, Stanton Ambulance, Villisca Fire and Villisca EMS.
Brad Baker, with the Red Oak Police Department, said in 2017 the First Responders had training in Red Oak and they broke down how Law Enforcement, Fire and EMS were going to respond to active threat situations. While law enforcement is trained to enter and counter the threat, ambulance and fire crews are responsible for entering the “hot” zone and render aid or remove injured, currently without ballistic protection.
“Having the availability to have some protective vests, some of their equipment directly on those vests, they might be in a little better situation to survive and go home to their families,” said Baker. “Montgomery County, like most of the counties around, it’s a volunteer agency that is probably responding in large part, we want to send these volunteers home to their families and this might be another tool they can use.”
The plan is to Adopt a First Responder. The Southwest Iowa Squadron of Heroes has partnered with a provider that will make ballistic vests and they have negotiated a price of $300 per unit. The Level III protection provided will be for small arms, rifle and bladed weapons, with plates covering torso, back and sides on the vest.
The Squadron of Heroes is working on numbers for each Department, but they estimate at this time they will be trying to secure funds to purchase 50+ units; a $15,000+ fundraising effort. This will be a phased/step fundraiser. Initial funds will cover the vests and any additional funds or grant support will go towards vest id’s, med kits/vest attachments, and helmets.
“There are a couple different directions for donations. Obviously, we’ll accept checks made out to the Heroes Squad; those checks can be mailed to 106 W. Coolbaugh Street, Red Oak, IA, 51566. We do have a Venmo account if people would rather go that direction, you can search for us at SuperHeroes-Fund,” explained Baker. “If you have any questions, you can reach out to the Heroes Squad on our Facebook page, message us and we’ll be glad to get back to you and get your more information.”
