Federal Funding Heats Up for Local Fire Departments
WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 – Four area fire departments are gearing up to improve their facilities, purchase vehicles and provide better equipment for their firefighters, thanks to more than $712,000 in federal grants from the Department of Homeland Security.
Fire departments in Dartmouth, Rochester, Wareham and Westport received grants as part of the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program.
“The importance of this program is that it affords us the opportunity to have important pieces of equipment . that we could never afford without such assistance,” said Lt. Allen Manley of the Westport Fire Department.
The grant program was started in 2001 to provide federal assistance to local fire departments’ efforts to protect citizens. Since its inception the program has awarded approximately $2.5 billion to emergency response agencies across the nation.
“The administration recognizes the firefighters are the front line of the first-response community,” said Department of Homeland Security spokesman Mark Short.
Westport, which also received a grant in 2003, will be using its award of $554,800 to buy a vehicle equipped with a 500-gallon water tank, pumping equipment and an aerial ladder.
“This gives us a tool we really need,” Manley said.
Wareham’s department expects to use its grant of more than $49,896 to purchase protective equipment that will make its firefighters better able to fight the brush and forest fires they commonly face in the fall and early spring. In 2003, Wareham used a Homeland Security grant to purchase breathing apparatuses for its firefighters.
Rochester, which also was awarded grants in 2003 and 2004, received $76,000, also to be used for protective equipment. The Dartmouth fire department will use its $31,635 award to modify its facilities.
Fire department officials say they will continue to apply for these grants in future years.
