The Swift Current Fire Department will receive a much-needed upgrade to some of their self-contained breathing apparatuses (SCBA) shortly.

Last night Swift Current city council approved the purchase of 15 SCBA's for the City's fire department at a cost of just over $125,000, which will largely be covered by MEEP funding.

Ryan Hunter, the fire chief for the Swift Current Fire Department, said the SCBA is the single biggest improvement in firefighter's safety in the past 30 years.

"Wearing an SCBA allows every member to have clean fresh air to breathe when working in a toxic atmosphere," he said.

The 15 new units that will be purchased from Swift Current's Acklands-Grainger will replace ones that no longer meet OHS standards.

"The current OHS regulations state that each SCBA must have an automatic firefighter down alarm that signals when a firefighter is trapped or incapacitated in a toxic atmosphere," he said.

Swift Current Mayor Al Bridal said that the SCBA's are something that the fire department needed for the safety of the City's firefighters and he's happy to see the purchase made.

The MEEP funding will cover $125,000 of the purchase and the small difference of a few hundred dollars will be absorbed within the fire department's 2021 capital budget.