MONROVIA - A dispute between the Monrovia Firefighter's Association union and the Fire Department has erupted over the purchase of safety equipment.

Union members claim Monrovia fire Chief Chris Donovan misled them and unilaterally chose a brand of breathing equipment without their input. Firefighters said they're also concerned about the safety record of the equipment, which is made by a company Donovan chose.

"We're bringing our concerns to the chief and he's saying, `I don't care,"' Monrovia Firefighters Association President Dave Rapp said. "We feel this is obviously a major safety concern for firefighters and the public."

Controversy over the equipment began last year when a plan was set up to outfit every

A firefighter wearing a self-contained breathing apparatus. The Monrovia city council approved the purchase of 33 such units in a county-wide program to outfit firefighters from different cities with the same equipment.

fire department in Los Angeles County with the same Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus - equipment used by firefighters to breath in smoky conditions. The SCBAs would be paid for by $30 million in federal grant money.

But when the city and county of Los Angeles, which controlled the bidding process, chose to purchase SCBAs produced by Santa Ana-based Sperian Protection, rival bidders and Los Angeles area firefighters unions objected.

Allstar Fire Equipment, an Arcadia equipment distributor, sued the city and county, alleging that the bidding process was rigged.

A judge ruled that the bidding had been "compromised" and ordered the process to be restarted. He also gave cities the option of evaluating and purchasing equipment on their own. The selection process was re-started, and Sperian was again victorious.

Rapp claims that Donovan told the union that firefighters would have an opportunity to evaluate different brands of SCBAs before a decision was made. But the chief sent out a newsletter on May 9 informing union members that Monrovia would be purchasing the Sperian equipment.

Donovan said he made no promises to the union and that he chose Sperian largely because the majority of departments in the county did as well. Only six of 31 cities have chosen another brand of SCBA, with two other cities undecided, Donovan said.

"It doesn't make sense to be an island," he said. "The intent of the chiefs when we started this process three to four years ago was to have every firefighter in the county in the same piece of equipment."

Donovan acknowledged he was disappointed that every department in the county did not choose the same equipment.

The safety record of Sperian has been questioned by officials from several firefighters unions, who point to two firefighter deaths in St. Louis tied to Sperian equipment.

In 2007, Sperian was ordered by a jury to pay $27 million to the family of a firefighter who died while using its equipment. The company, which changed its name from Survivair after the deaths, settled with another family in 2006 for between $2 million and $5 million, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Donovan noted that the model of SCBA purchased from Sperian is not the same model worn by the St. Louis firefighters and conforms to national standards.

"The analogy is you were driving a 2002 pinto with a gas tank that exploded when involved in rear-end collisions and now you are driving a 2007 Explorer," Donovan wrote in the newsletter.

"This (is) by no means minimizing the tragic loss of life but merely points out that it is not the same product. Thirty-one fire chiefs would not agree to put their personnel in inferior products - especially SCBA's!"

Monrovia will send out the purchase orders for the 33 Sperian SCBAs on Monday, Donovan said.

The total cost for the equipment is $185,000, which will be reimbursed with grant money.

Source: www.pasadenastarnews.com - Link

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Editors thought: With a brand new generation state of the art self contained breathing apparatus style on the way, why are they buying millions of dollars of this old generation SCBA equipment?
See this article for more info on the new SCBA developments: New SCBA on the way! IAFF news release: Federal Contract Gives IAFF Lead in Developing Lighter Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus