With a sizable federal grant, the Kalispell Fire Department is buying a new vehicle to tow its hazardous materials response trailer.

Kalispell has one of six hazardous materials response teams in Montana.

This year, Kalispell and Billings are the last two of those teams to get federal pass-through grants to buy vehicles with more stopping and engine power to tow the heavy, three-axle response trailers.

The Kalispell City Council on Monday approved a $194,451 tow vehicle purchase. The bid was awarded to General Fire Apparatus in Spokane.

“It should be able to tow the trailer more safely and easily,” Fire Chief Dave Dedman said of the semi-like vehicle. “It’s rated for the weight, has the stopping and pulling power needed and more room to store equipment.”

Kalispell is expected to take delivery of the specially built vehicle within 300 days.

The initial grant was for $155,000, coming to Montana from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

When that amount was not enough to buy the vehicle, the Montana Department of Military Affairs Disaster and Emergency Services awarded $43,500 more to cover the purchase and any other costs that may arise.

“They stepped up and made up the difference,” Dedman said. “It’s a 100 percent grant. There’s no match.”

The trailer is a mobile work station that can be deployed to spills or other emergencies involving chemical, biological or even radioactive hazardous materials.

It holds a wide array of specialty equipment including substance identification and monitoring machines, response suits, breathing equipment, decontamination and containment gear, even its own weather station.

“Everything needed to respond for a long-term event,” Dedman said.

The hazardous materials response trailer has only been deployed a few times over the last decade. Deployments must be approved by state officials.

“We’re definitely an island up here in the valley. We see a lot of different things and we don’t really have a lot of industry up here,” Dedman said.

“But having that resource available is nice because we can use it for city responses. The ID tools are very beneficial, so we can have early recognition of what a substance is and we don’t have to call in a team from say Missoula.”

Reporter Tom Lotshaw may be reached at 758-4483 or by email at tlotshaw@dailyinterlake.com.