The Arlington Fire District just received a major boost for its special operations team thanks to a federal grant.

Batallion Chief Adam Kangas is in charge of the special operations special rescue teams for the Arlington Fire District.

According to the fire department's chief, Arlington fire is the only fully staffed, fully operational tech-rescue team between Westchester and the Capital Region. It serves 750,000 residents and is equipped for unique responses, such as collapses and water rescues.

Kangas’ team responds to some of the most difficult rescue calls imagineable across the region.

"With all the construction that’s going on throughout the area, there's construction companies and situations where large ditches are being built or being dug," said Kangas. "They have to open up large swaths of ground which create trenches. They're extremely dangerous situations where they can collapse on each other, so if there's a worker inside it and the walls give way, they can become trapped."

It costs a lot of money to train highly technical and highly skilled special rescue teams, but federal funding is on the way. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney helped the Arlington Fire District secure $166,144 in federal assistance to the firefighters grant.

"We need to support our first responders. We need to support the cops, the firefighters, the people who show up when you're having a crisis or the worst day of your life," said Maloney.

"This money allows us to actually build trenches for training in a safe scenario so the workers can have practical experience working in trenches themselves," said Kangas.

He said with the funding, they’ll be able to train 45 more firefighters in trench rescue, strengthening their capacity to save lives.

Maloney was joined by former Ulster County Executive and now-Rep. Pat Ryan. Both congressmen are calling on FEMA to approve another grant called the SAFER grant for the Arlington Fire District which would provide $3 million for additional training.

"Every single day that I had the privilege to serve as county executive and now as a member of Congress, making sure that we have the backs of those putting their lives on the line for us," said Ryan.

"Without this type of funding, we wouldn’t be able to have the level of training that we are going to have, and it really helps the program keep going," said Kangas.

Maloney is running for re-election in New York’s 17th Congressional District in November against Republican Mike Lawler.

Ryan is running for election in New York’s 18th Congressional District against Republican Colin Schmitt.