Volunteer fire departments across Grimes County are getting more radios for their firefighters.
Emergency Management Coordinator for the county David Lilly presented at Wednesday’s Commissioner’s Court meeting a deal for 31 new digital radios to be added to three different VFD’s, plus general Grimes County First Responders.
“All these radios are older, but they are still functional. I carry one of them myself…these radios are still working. The purpose of this…is to give them that capability to participate, and be part of the response,” Lilly said.
By department, 17 of them would go to Todd Mission VFD, 8 to Grimes County First Responders, 5 to Plantersville VFD, and 1 for Richards VFD.
Lilly said not having these radios really put them behind the times with other agencies.
“Everybody within the county, and outside the county, are all using digital. And this all could have come to a head during our search for [Christopher Ramirez]. We had a lot of helping agencies from outlying counties…and all the outlying teams that came were on digital,” Lilly said. “Some of the fire departments did not have enough digital radios, so they could not communicate with the other departments coming in from outside the county.”
The Commissioner Court approved the 31 new radios for the VFD’s and first responders in the county.
Lilly added that the addition of these radios will cost about $5,400 extra dollars per year.
