CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Every year the city's fire and police departments apply for State Homeland Security grants. Last year, the city received just over $180,000 from the program. This year they're applying for just over $840,000 in grants. Those funds will be used to buy equipment that will help them prevent terrorism and provide aid in mass casualty events.
Assistant Fire Chief Billy Belyeu said two of the grant applications that will be submitted to the state will help add a LifePak defibrillator to the department's AMBUS (ambulance bus) and new hazmat equipment to the department.
"Every year we try to find where we're weak and we try to find ways to solve that," Belyeu said. "If we're able to close these gaps that we have on the AMBUS and within the hazmat program, then we can take some of the money that we have within our budget and spend it on other things."
The city's AMBUS is one of only 15 in the state.
Firefighter and paramedic Jose Gonzalez said the unit isn't just used within the city, but also for emergencies and mass casualty events throughout the region.
"This is used for the triage of a big accident, maybe a bus that overturns or something like that, where we go in and triage the patients," Gonzalez said.
The grants that CCPD is applying for will help bring new protective equipment to their SWAT team and could even supply their bomb squad with new detection equipment and a response vehicle.
These are things that CCPD Travis Pace says are essential to a team that serves such a wide region.
"Our bomb squad has the largest geographical mass in the United States, so they respond to well over 20 counties," Pace said. "This grant allows us to respond to those types of calls."
The city's emergency management coordinator, Billy Delgado, said the grants will help upkeep equipment and ensure that the city will always have what it needs to best protect the public.
"Anytime that they're able to get equipment that will help during times of a catastrophe or a major disaster, it is always so good for the city of Corpus Christi and the public," Delgado said.
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