Richard Congdon is a Herkimer County Sheriff's Deputy and a volunteer firefighter for the Salisbury Fire Department. He came up with the idea to re-purpose self-contained breathing apparatuses, or SCBAs, to make masks that can protect against the coronavirus.
Congdon says firefighters change their SCBAs every year, so he thought it was a good idea to re-use them to help front line workers.
"I sat one day and got think about what we could use for protective gear," Congdon said. I came up with this idea for taking the old SCBAs and getting filters."
The filters he is using for the mask are milk filters because they are thick.
"I used to be a milk inspector and a farmer so I had the idea of these filters that are heavier so I contacted Mr. Gardinier from Gardinier Dairy Supply about the filters which he has donated graciously for us," Congdon said.