Grant aimed at boosting firefighter safety in Southland

A $1.8 million grant awarded to 20 south suburban fire departments will be used for buying state-of-the-art radios to help keep firefighters safe.

The Department of Homeland Security, which manages the firefighter grant program, recently gifted departments in MABAS Division 24 — the local mutual-aid organization — with the federal grant money to buy radios and provide training.

The main purpose of the new radios is to increase accountability of firefighters while at the scene of a fire and, ultimately, save lives, said Homewood Chief Robert Grabowski, whose department applied for the grant…Please click here to read Nick Swedberg’s story in the Southtown Star.