Nearly three dozen fire departments across the state will be better equipped to help suppress both structure and wildland fires thanks to grants from the Alaska Division of Forestry (DOF). The DOF awarded more than $159,000 to 34 rural fire departments around the state to improve firefighting capabilities and enhance protection in the wildland-urban interface.
Several departments across the Kenai Peninsula received grants. They include:
- Ninilchik Emergency Services – $4,779
- Cooper Landing VFD – $4,449
- Kachemak Emergency Services – $4,986
- Anchor Point Fire & Emergency Services – $4,998
- Nikiski Fire Department – $4,626
- Kenai Fire Department – $4,975
- Homer VFD – $4,999
- Seward Fire Department – $4,979
- Lowell Point VFD – $4,995
Sarah Sarloos with the Alaska Department of Natural Resources spoke to KSRM, “The funds come from the U.S. Forest Service to the Division of Forestry each year. The amount somewhat varies. This year, we awarded a little bit more than $159,000 to a total of 34 rural fire departments. That’s all over the state of Alaska. What happens each year is we put out an invitation letter to our volunteer fire departments and fire departments. They put in a proposal up to $5,000 of what they would spend the funding on. Sometimes it’s equipment, sometimes it’s training. Then, we gather all their responses and then we get a panel of our fire management officers and we go through all of the proposals and they’re ranked by need. Then, we have enough funding that we can award all of the requests and that makes it a good year.”
The DOF annually provides up to $225,000 in VFA grant funds to fire departments. The money received cannot be used for repair, construction or purchase of buildings, land acquisition, emergency medical equipment, computers or computer software and other specified items.