Photo by Gage Vota Cumberland Trail Fire district deputy director Curtis Kyer, from left, OR&W Fire District Fire Chief R.C. Fellows, Belmont County Sheriff James Zusack, and Martins Ferry Fire Department Fire Chief 1 Justin Smith celebrate all of the county’s fire departments being able to use respirator fit testing equipment.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE – The Belmont County Board of Commissioners will pay All American Fire Equipment $11,462.78 for respirator fit testing equipment that will be used by all fire departments in the county as well as Belmont County Sheriff’s Office.

The decision came after a New Year’s Eve house explosion in Martins Ferry that left multiple firefighters becoming sick. OR&W Fire District Fire Chief R.C. Fellows said that the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation is requiring all Ohio fire departments to follow OSHA regulations to have fit testing done once a year.

He said that, currently, no fire departments in Belmont County are able to comply with the regulations due to not having the needed equipment.

“This will provide some safety for our firefighters within that county. This machine is going to go in and essentially make sure that our face pieces are safe for us to use and make sure that they’re fit correctly and that they work correctly,” Fellows said. “And so once a year we’ll get testing for that and hopefully in the future it’ll protect all of the fire departments.”

He added that he just recently was made aware that the Sheriff’s Office also uses respirators, so it will also be able to use the equipment.

Martins Ferry Fire Department Chief 1 Justin Smith approached the Belmont County Emergency Management Agency following the New Year’s Eve explosion, and the EMA brought the matter to the Board of Commissioners. Commissioners were able to fund the equipment through XTO settlement funds.

A 2018 methane leak that followed a well pad explosion near Powhatan Point led to XTO Energy settling with the county in 2019. XTO paid a total of $850,000. Half of that amount went to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and $425,000 to local public entities, particularly the emergency responders who assisted with the incident to help improve their emergency response systems. These include the Belmont County Sheriff’s Department at $45,000; Belmont County Emergency Management Agency $184,000; Powhatan Point Police Department $30,000; and Powhatan Point Volunteer Fire Department and Emergency Squad $100,000. Remaining funds were to be divided among other fire departments in Belmont County.

“This is going to be huge for Belmont County firefighters, and hopefully it’ll keep us all safe and keep us from getting into some of the predicaments that they [Martins Ferry fire department] got into earlier this year,” Fellows said. “We have three sizes — small, medium, and large. But about 95% of the firefighters use a medium sub face view. There are some that people with smaller faces go to a smaller mask, and then some larger people go with a larger mask. It just depends on facial features. It’s not necessarily a body configuration, it’s more about your face and your jaw.”

He added that yearly tests will also help because people regularly gain and lose weight throughout the span of a year.

“If you gain and you lose weight, you gotta know whether or not that face piece is good for you. So that’s why this is going to be vital for the fire service. It’s going to keep all of the firefighters in this county safer and hopefully keep us out of trouble with BWC,” Fellows said. “It’ll hopefully help [the sheriff’s office] out too, to keep their members safe as they go on wearing gas masks and incidents.”

He added that the new testing equipment will make sure that the departments’ masks have a good seal, and that the firefighters will be safe when fighting fires and in bad environments.

“Once a year through those OSHA regulations, you’re supposed to have a fit test done, and obviously, as you gain or lose weight, you have the possibility of needing a different size mask, so this will help us provide that safety net there, so if you need a different face piece, you’ll be able to get it and it’ll be provided to us,” Fellows said. “This is just going to be huge for the safety of the firefighters and the police departments all over Belmont County.”