The Burlington Fire Department now can purchase two state-of-the-art heart monitors since securing an $87,000 grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. In addition to fire prevention and response, the department also employs paramedics and five ambulances responding to medical emergencies throughout Burlington, West Burlington, Middletown, Danville, six regional townships and small counties in western Illinois. U.S. Rep. Dave Loebsack, D-Iowa, toured the fire department’s building downtown Wednesday afternoon and met with staff to discuss how they would employ the Assistance to Firefighters Grant earned by the Burlington unit. The heart monitors paramedics carry in the ambulances can transmit information about the patient directly to the hospital using bandwidth from cellular towers. Even in rural areas, the paramedics said, they’ve always been able to transmit the data. They currently have two such monitors, bringing their total to four once the new monitors are purchased. “To provide the best service, that’s what we think we should be doing,” explained deputy chief Don Ryan. “That’s why we asked for the grant money to go towards that.”