Kansas has 13,000 volunteer firefighters; many of them serve in rural communities where wildfires can run rampant and have a major agricultural impact.
The Kansas Forest Service is looking to give back to those volunteer firefighters through the Volunteer Fire Assistance Cost Share Program.
According to Eric Ward, “It’s a program from the USDA Forest Service that they provide past through cost share funding to us to administer for volunteer fire departments and rural fire departments. It’s a 50/50 cost share program where if they apply through our application process and they get awarded a project up to $10,000, we can reimburse up to 50% of that back based on what the award was.”
He says that a large amount of that money often goes toward wildfire equipment, which is a big need across the entire state.
“I’d say the three biggest ones that we’ve seen really consistently are communications equipment, radios or the pagers that notify the volunteer firefighters of a fire call. Protective equipment, so fire-resistant coats and pants and helmets and stuff. Most fire departments have those for their structure fires, but wildfires actually require a different kind of protective equipment because the hazards are different. You’re not crawling into a burning house where a ceiling might fall on your head. You just need something flame-resistant and lightweight for doing a lot of work. So that’s been a big one that up until ten years ago, I’d say that most Kansas fire departments did not have,” Ward explains.
