OLB NEWS

OLB Working Overtime to Produce Fire Hoses to combat California Wildfires

http://newsok.com/article/keyword/3268134/

By Adrielle Harvey, Business Writer

The Oklahoman

July 10, 2008

The Northern California wildfires have radically increased demand on a city organization that employs blind people to manufacture fire hoses.

The Oklahoma League for the Blind employs more than 100 people who are blind or have other severe disabilities. They assemble fire hoses and wooden wheel chocks used by the U.S. Air Force. They also package rations, first aid kits and vinyl shower curtains for the U.S. military.

The group, which has a 100,000-square-foot manufacturing facility, is the leading producer of fire hoses for the U.S. Forest Service through the General Services Administration. With the recent emergency situation in California, the organization is "working frantically,” said Lauren White, president and chief executive.

"We had shipped almost $6 million worth of hoses before June 1,” White said, but the Forest Service since has made a request for $5 million more.

The hoses used to fight the California fires cost $100 each and are a "durable product,” said Tory Henderson, branch chief of equipment and chemicals for the Forest Service. Each is used multiple times, then goes through a refurbishment process.

The GSA and the Forest Service have not been able to keep inventory at the appropriate levels with the influx of fires. Usually, fires in Northern California do not occur until August or September, Henderson said. The fire season typically starts in the southwest and winds down about this time. Then the Great Basin area of Nevada, Idaho and Utah picks up before fires move into Oregon, Montana and Washington, he said.

The Oklahoma league has supplied fire hoses for the past six or seven years, White said.

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