Flint Fire Department waits on city council to replace equipment | Local [Video]

FLINT, Mich. (WJRT) – The Flint Fire Department is raising alarms about expired and broken equipment months after they asked the Flint City Council for funding to replace it.

The fire department asked council members for more than $700,000 in the fall to replace outdated self-contained breathing apparatus units, breathing air compressors to fill the tanks and more. 

But the council did not conduct any of the city’s business from mid-October until this week during a stalemate over electing new council leadership and appointing a new member to the vacant Third Ward seat. 

Flint Fire Chief Theron Wiggins said many of the fire department’s self-contained breathing apparatus units, which firefighters use to breathe inside burning structures, are red-tagged and out of service.

“All of our equipment …