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Fritch, Texas
Superintendent Karren Brown of Lake Meredith National Recreation Area is pleased to announce that through the Department of the Interior Rural Fire Assistance Program, the Fritch Volunteer Fire Department and the Hutchinson County Precinct Two Fire Department are recipients of $5,000 and $7,000 grants, respectively, to enhance the fire protection capabilities of Rural Fire Departments (RFD).
The funding was provided through a 2001 congressional public law for Wildland Fire Appropriations for the Department of the Interior and Related Agencies. The law states, in part, that the Department of the Interior will provide rural fire assistance to qualifying RFD's. In order to qualify for assistance through the program, the RFD's must have a cooperating agreement with the National Park Service and they must serve a community with a population of less than ten thousand. The program funds training, equipment purchases and prevention activities on a cost-share basis. The RFD must share a minimum of 10 percent of the costs, which may include in-kind services. Safe and effective fire suppression in the wildland-urban interface demands close coordination between local, state, tribal and federal firefighting resources. The public will benefit by having reduced fire loss, development of fire prevention programs and the reduction of occurrence and intensity of wildland fires within the urban interface. The National Park Service may provide technical assistance, training, supplies, materials, and equipment and participate in interagency prevention and educational activities.
Lake Meredith Fire Management Officer Michael Davin wrote the successful grant applications and the money will be used to purchase personal protective clothing, fire fighting equipment, and fire shelters for wildland firefighting for the RFD's. The purchased items will be used in mitigation and wildfire suppression in the cities of Fritch, Borger, Sanford, Stinnett, and the Hutchinson County area as well as any mutual aid fire events in neighboring communities. In addition to the money from this program, the park has provided area RFD's with three 5,000-gallon tanker trucks. “With the limited resources for firefighting in Hutchinson County and other surrounding areas, everyone benefits from cooperating agreements and funding from grants like these,” said Superintendent Karren Brown.
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