Firefighters from eight Wood County fire departments will be a little safer thanks to a $656,429 grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The grant pays for 95 percent of the cost of replacing all eight departments' self-contained breathing apparatus, Hewitt-Area Fire Department Chief Brian Hafermann said. The departments will have to pay the remaining $32,821, as part of the grant agreement. "This helped us out tremendously allowing us to replace the air packs at a major discount to our residents," Hafermann said. The fire departments included in the grant are the Arpin, Auburndale, Lincoln, Rock, Richfield, Cameron, Hewitt and Vesper departments, Hafermann said. The grant will purchase 105 air packs for the eight departments.