Two Lakes Region fire departments recently received grants from the Department of Homeland Security.

The Sebago Fire Department will provide training for firefighters from Sebago and other area towns with the help of a $32,860 grant. Raymond firefighters will use a $156,655 grant to pay for the purchase of around 20 Scott Air-Pak self-contained breathing apparatuses, equipment that Chief Denis Morse said fills a great need in the department.

“Ours are about 25 years old,” he said.

It was the third year that Raymond applied for the Homeland Security grant, and the first successful application, Morse said. In all, the department has received four or five grants from different sources over the past 10 years, he said.

“It was just our year, I guess,” Morse said about the Homeland Security grant.

The Sebago Fire Department will use its 2008 grant to conduct trainings and buy a test device for the self-contained breathing apparatus. Funds from this grant will be spent between November 2008 and November 2009.

The fire department will conduct a certified Fire Fighter I training program for 14 Sebago firefighters and 16 firefighters from neighboring mutual aid departments. Education funds will also be used to train 20 Sebago firefighters and Emergency Medical Services personnel in safe driving techniques.

Equipment funds will be used to buy a respirator fit test device to be used for annual self contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) tests required of all interior attack firefighters.

This is the seventh assistance to firefighters grant that the Sebago Fire Department has won during the last six years, totaling nearly $400,000 in grants from this program.

In the past grant funding has helped the department buy extrication equipment, replace a tank truck, and buy other equipment including radios and wild land fire gear.