Title
Firefighter Personal Accountability System Upgrade (NB)
This item requests that the City Commission authorize the City Manager or designee to approve the issuance of a purchase order to upgrade the TPASS personal accountability system.
Explanation
Gainesville Fire Rescue (GFR) originally purchased the Grace Industries TPASS personal accountability system in 2003 through a Fire Act Grant for the price of $265,247. This system supplied both Alachua County Fire Rescue and GFR with TPASS devices, repeaters, and command units. The TPASS devices were purchased for each GFR Operations employee. The cost per unit in 2003 was $749, that purchase also included the command units at a cost of $6995 per device. The repeater units cost $398 per device.
In 2010, GFR began an upgrade process of the TPASS system with a new communications package that allowed the incident commander to perform monitoring and communication with individual TPASS devices via a laptop computer. This upgrade significantly increased the safety of individual firefighters with a higher level of dependability and communication. The cost of this upgrade was $15,990 for two communication packages, one for each District Chief's vehicle, which translates to a cost of $7995 per vehicle setup.
Gainesville Fire Rescue is now moving to complete the upgrade started in 2010 by the replacement of the TPASS3 devices originally purchased in 2003. These devices are nearly nine years old and have now developed cost of maintenance issues. The purchase cost of a new TPASS3 unit is $800.25 per unit. The TPASS3 does not meet the new NFPA standard for personal accountability devices. The TPASS4 device that we will be purchasing meets the new NFPA standard for heat protection, audible alarm, and survivability. This purchase also includes another command communications package for the spare District Chief's vehicle, more of the stand-alone repeaters required for large area responses, and TPASS de...
Click here for full text