Seattle firefighters need more bulletproof vests because of growing dangers on the job. The department has gotten a few, but still needed more than 200 vests and there's no more money from the city to pay for them.
But, with help from the Seattle Fire Foundation, more than $55,000 has been raised in community and corporate donations.
“With that, we will immediately be purchasing 40 sets of ballistic gear to help protect our firefighters,” said Lindsey Pflugrath, the chair of Seattle Fire Foundation. The Seattle Fire Department says each bulletproof vest, along with accessories, costs about $1,300. The city supplied the department 25 of them at $1,300 each, coming out to $32,500. But, the department wants a total of 250 of them. The total bill would be about $325,000. Many of them will have to be paid for with the help of community donations.