JONESBORO, AR (KAIT) –In anticipation of what could be a bad summer for wildfires, the Arkansas Forestry Commission is using recovery grant money to equip fire departments with wildland firefighting kits .
Fire fighters from large and small departments were on hand today to receive nearly 4 Hundred Thousand dollars worth of fire fighting tools.
Departments from Clay, Craighead, Cross, Greene, Jackson, Mississippi and Poinsett counties, 47 departments in all will be equipping their brush trucks with items, like chainsaws, leaf blowers and rakes and other tools.
As part of the 3.6 million dollar grant which paid for the tools. The forestry commission is also adding and updating their own tool arsenal.
Christina Fowler with the Arkansas Forestry Commission said there is a great need this year for new heavy equipment.
“A lot of that is to upgrade our equipment because of the debris on the ground we need newer larger dozers to get into some of these areas to fight wildland fires.
The Forestry Commission will be getting 6 new dozers that will be placed around Northern Arkansas.
For many departments this of fire fighting tools will frees up hard to come by cash that many volunteer departments do not readily have.
Wayne Miller, the Fire Chief for the Philadelphia Fire Department was loading up his pickup truck. Their department has two brush trucks and the equipment will be distributed to each one. Miller says this equipment is not normally something they could purchase at one time.
“If we had to we could probably skimp and save some way or another to get it. but this being given to us it allows us to use that money for other items that we desperately need also. As with any volunteer fire department there is always something you need.”
Article by Keith Boles
http://www.kait8.com/Global/story.asp?S=12588972