PSFD gets new and improved breathing units that can help save more lives

Palm Springs Fire Department has a new, improved tool to help save lives. It's replacing decade-old breathing devices with new ones with improved safety features.  

This piece of equipment is called a Self Contained Breathing Apparatus. It is a lifeline for firefighters. They use this equipment to be able to breathe when all of that smoke, heat, and flames start building up. 

The new breathing devices are replacing the old equipment that's been used over the last 10 years. The City of Palm Springs made it possible for the department to get 70 brand new breathing units.

The new equipment is lighter, more efficient, easier to move in, and meets the national standard.

"With these new fittings, being compliant with the national standard, if we go into another city or another city comes in to help us, and we have a firefighter down, we can hook up to whatever connections they have, they're all going to fit they're all universal, and it's going to help say firefighter lives as well," said PSFD captain Nathan Gunkel.

The old breathing units will either be turned in for credit or used for training. The department expects the new equipment to last another 10 years.

"Lives [are] what we want to save. So if we can get in there, and we can fit in little smaller areas with the smaller bottles, we can fit in, we can get into rescue to find someone that's in a hiding spot, maybe a small kid who was able to fit in somewhere, we cannot make it into that area as well. It's priceless," said Gunkel.