Huntington Beach Fire Department purchases 6 RIT packs with grant
Firehouse Subs opened on Warner Avenue in Huntington Beach in mid-February, 2020.
It was an exciting time for franchisees Troy Ruoff and Natalie Fritz, who never could have predicted that the coronavirus pandemic was just weeks away.
Still, the location across from Ocean View High School has stayed open. Moreover, Ruoff and Fritz have helped make a difference in the community.
The Huntington Beach Fire Department recently received a grant of $24,774 through the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation. This has enabled the department to purchase six Scott rapid intervention team (RIT) packs.
The packs are crucial, HBFD Battalion Chief of Training Justin Fleming explained at an event Wednesday at Firehouse Subs.
“On every structure fire that we go to, we designate a unit, a RIT team,” Fleming said. “Their sole job on that fire is the safety of the firefighters that are working inside. Firefighters can become lost, they become entangled, they become separated from their hose lines, they start to run low on air. The RIT team goes in and rescues that downed firefighter.”
Fleming said the orange RIT packs include equipment such as ropes, oxygen chambers and masks.
“If there’s anything that is one of the most important tools on the fireground, besides the nozzles to put out the fire, it’s the bags that we use to rescue our own,” he said.
Wednesday’s event was also attended by Huntington Beach Fire Chief Scott Haberle and local politicians, including 48th District Rep. Michelle Steel, Huntington Beach City Councilman Dan Kalmick and representatives from the offices of state Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris and Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley.
Representatives from the Huntington Beach Chamber of Commerce, including immediate past chair Sheik Sattaur, also attended and had a proper ribbon-cutting event for the location. It includes a large mural of the Huntington Beach Pier inside, with a couple of Huntington Beach firefighters surfing.
Firehouse Subs area representative Jeff Press said the Public Safety Foundation has given grants totaling more than $60 million to first responders nationwide, since the program debuted during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
“It’s a privilege to be able to part of this organization that gives back and helps out our first responders with life-saving equipment,” Press said. “There are agencies out there in many communities that don’t have money to buy new equipment. It surprises me every single time we do these dedications how expensive the equipment is, and how needed it is in the field.”
Ruoff said the sandwich shop also recently fed workers at Huntington Beach Fire Department Station One for three weeks, as the station was used as a COVID-19 vaccination station.
“Not only were we able to survive, but we’ve also been able to give back,” said Ruoff, a Newport Beach native. “It’s through the Huntington Beach community that we’ve been able to do any of this.”
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