Nesquehoning Hose Company No. 1 is making sure it keeps its residents safe.

Through the help of three federal grants over the past 13 years, the volunteer fire department has secured $1,015,000 to help cover the majority of the $1.5 million cost of three firefighting apparatus.Most recently, the company was awarded a $237,500 Assistance to Firefighters Grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to help offset the $457,133 total for a 2015 KME Ridgerunner Urban Interface Vehicle. The fire company was awarded the grant last year.The new vehicle, which the fire department took ownership of earlier this month, is a combination brush truck/pumper and can carry brush fighting equipment, as well as structural firefighting equipment.Fire Chief John McArdle said the vehicle helps the fire department not only fight residential fires, but can also be used as a forestry unit in brush fires and other off-road emergencies or in winter when more traction is needed. It includes a pumping system and 500-gallon water tank, as well as a foam system.The rig was constructed by Kovatch Mobile Equipment Corporation of Nesquehoning, which submitted the low bid for the project. KME also constructed Nesquehoning Hose Company's other two vehicles, a 2002 engine and a 2013 103-foot Quint vehicle.The new vehicle replaces two brush trucks a 1968 Kaiser Jeep brush truck and a 1975 AMC brush tanker that were not originally designed for fire service. Those vehicles have been returned to the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.