The Tyler Fire Department is forming an explosive ordnance disposal team, also called an EOD team. At Wednesday’s Tyler city council meeting, approval was given for the department to apply for a grant that would go towards getting the equipment the team needs to operate.
“We’ve been approved by the FBI to have a team, and this would help us to get some equipment we need in order to be certified in December,” Tyler Fire Chief David Coble said.
Coble says having a local EOD team will decrease response times across east Texas.
“Whenever we did have something here, a suspicious package if you will, we had to call people up either from an Army base two or three hours from here, or from Garland which is still almost a two hour drive to get to Tyler,” Coble said.
As the population in Tyler grows, Chief Coble says so does the demand for an EOD team.