[V]ERNON — There’s been a fire sale of sorts at Vermont Yankee, and that’s a good thing for area emergency responders.
As Entergy continues to downsize operations at the shut-down nuclear plant in Vernon, the company has given away tens of thousands of dollars worth of equipment to fire departments and other public safety organizations in the tri-state area.
Along with emergency gear like helmets, jackets, tools and hoses, Entergy also has made office equipment and electronics available at no charge. It’s been a welcome development for small, mostly volunteer-led organizations with tight budgets.
“It would have been thousands of dollars if we’d have had to buy this stuff,” said Greg Record, president of Newfane-based NewBrook Fire & Rescue Department.
Vermont Yankee stopped producing power at the end of 2014, and the plant is headed into an extended period of dormancy before its decommissioning. More than 100 employees remain at the facility, but Entergy has been cutting staff and closing sections of the plant that are no longer needed.
The company also received federal approval to drastically downsize its emergency planning operations as of April.
Vermont Yankee continues to maintain “protocols and procedures in the event of a fire, as any industrial site would,” spokesman Marty Cohn said. And the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, in its latest inspection of the Vernon site, approved the plant’s current fire protection program.
But Cohn also noted that “we don’t need a lot of the fire equipment that we maintained when we were an operating plant.”
That excess inventory featured piles of protective firefighting apparel, including 37 pairs of pants, 29 jackets, 50 pairs of boots and 44 helmets. There also were 165 lengths of hose; 46 air packs; six equipment carts; and many assorted odds and ends like masks, hose nozzles, tools and flashlights.
Cohn said Vermont Yankee made an offer to area emergency responders: “Come on down and take whatever you want.”
Many organizations that received surplus equipment operate within Vermont Yankee’s former 10-mile emergency planning zone, which touched 18 towns in Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Others are farther afield, including the Vermont Fire Academy in Pittsford.
Michael Desrochers, executive director of the state Division of Fire Safety, said the academy accepted seven self-contained breathing apparatus cylinders from Vermont Yankee. They are used but recently manufactured, and “once we have possession of these, the cost to keep them in service is minimal,” Desrochers said.
Those cylinders would cost about $1,500 each if bought new, Desrochers said. In addition to saving the academy money, the Vermont Yankee donation reduces the amount of time needed to refill cylinders for training exercises.
The fire academy also received a used thermal imaging camera, Desrochers said.
NewBrook’s firefighters took possession of hoses, gear, nozzles, fittings and tools from Vermont Yankee. Record, who has been the department’s president for more than 20 years, said such a gift is a big boost given the high cost of basic firefighting equipment.
The Newfane department also got tables, chairs, cabinets and a white board. “This is all stuff we’re using at the station,” Record said.
The Brattleboro Fire Department bypassed fire equipment in favor of chairs, tables and flat-screen monitors, Chief Mike Bucossi said. Those items will be useful as the town’s firefighters move into new and renovated stations planned for West Brattleboro and the downtown.
“They were very generous,” Bucossi said of Entergy. “Right down to the end, they were very good to the town.”
Entergy has gathered a sheaf of thank-you letters from other organizations that garnered equipment from the Vermont Yankee giveaway. Guilford’s fire chief, for example, noted that “maintaining the necessary tools for outfitting a volunteer fire department is a constant challenge.”
The West Dummerston Fire Department offered gratitude for years of support, writing that “these donations have saved lives and prevented property damage in Dummerston.”
Fire Mutual Aid, which provides regional emergency dispatch services from its headquarters in Keene, New Hampshire, received a variety of office furniture and equipment from Vermont Yankee as well as a water testing kit.
“We will offer the use of the water test kit up to our fire departments to test the pressures that their pumps produce,” Fire Mutual Aid Chief Philip Tirrell wrote. “It is an item that we can have available to many towns, and many could not afford to have on their own.”
In Massachusetts, Vermont Yankee emergency equipment has found its way to Bernardston, Florida, Gill, Greenfield, Leyden and Northfield, as well as the Franklin County Fire Chiefs Association.
In Vermont, other communities benefiting from the plant’s donations include Putney, Vernon, Wardsboro and Wilmington.
Cohn said the Vermont Yankee surplus fire equipment is all gone, though last week the plant was still getting calls for office furniture.
