COVENTRY – The Coventry Emergency Squad, an all volunteer organization committed to helping others, is getting help of its own through a federal grant that was announced this week.

On Monday, the Coventry Emergency Squad was awarded $143,925 in federal funding by the Department of Homeland Security’s Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program (AFG) for the purchase of a new ambulance.

According to Kyle Wearne, Squad Captain and COO of the Coventry Emergency Squad, funds received will supplement money the organization already has saved for a new ambulance. Final costs of a new apparatus ranges from $160,000 to $170,000, he said.

“With this grant we will be able to upgrade our number one piece of equipment, our ambulance,” Wearne said in a press statement. “With this upgrade we will get to continue our quest to provide the best possible pre-hospital care with the least amount of interrupted service.”

In a phone interview, Wearne explained the squad has only one ambulance – a model the Coventry Emergency Squad bought new in 1999.