The Blanchard Township Fire Department has gotten some good news to counteract bad. The Department suffered the loss of a variety of equipment and two fire trucks in a fire at the the department’s firehouse in Benton Ridge In February. Since that time, the department has been working on a tight leash with remaining equipment and vehicles.

Now, the organization has received some good news in the form of two grants from the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The department applied for the grants well before the fire, but the funding will allow for replacement of the entire unit’s Self Contained Breathing Apparatus, including some pieces destroyed in the blaze. A second grant will be used to replace fire hoses and nozzles, including more than 500 feet that was destroyed.

Still pending is a grant application for a fire-truck.