For his Eagle Scout project, 16-year-old Jacob Delveaux of Troop 600 (Oak Ridge, NC) built two freestanding bunker gear dryers and donated them to the Greensboro Fire Department.

Commercial dryers damage turnout coats, so wet gear can take 12 to 24 hours to air-dry. Jacob’s design pushes air through the gear and dries a coat in about two hours, with valves that let firefighters dry one coat or several. Each unit costs about $1,000 in materials, far less than a commercial dryer.

Quick drying matters because firefighters keep a spare set of gear ready for the next call, and each set costs thousands of dollars. Jacob is also sharing his plans so the department can build dryers for all 27 of its stations.