By Brad Rhen
The Lebanon Daily News
SCHAEFFERSTOWN, Pa. — Jonestown Perseverance and Schaefferstown Volunteer fire companies are two of the 160 fire companies from across the state that recently received grants to help firefighters in rural communities guard against the threat of fires in forests and other undeveloped areas.
Jonestown Perseverance received $4,272 from the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources as part of more than $669,000 in grants that were awarded last week. Schaefferstown received $2,950.
“These funds will be distributed to 160 volunteer fire companies in rural areas and communities where forest and brush fires are common,” DCNR Secretary Richard J. Allan said in a news release. “To understand the importance of readiness, equipment and training, one only has to look back to spring of 2010 when dry, windy conditions spawned smaller fires in every county, along with several larger forest fires.”
Jonestown Perseverance Chief Carl Bachman said the company will use the money to buy a portable pump and a length of hose. The pump, he said, can be used on fire scenes to pump water from an off-road supply such as a pond or a creek.
“When you get on some of the off-beat paths where you have to set up a fill tank, you might have to go off the road a little bit to a pond, and it might be too soft to drive,” he said.
The pump can also be used for removing water from flooded basements, Bachman said.
The grant is 50-50 matching grants, so the company has to pay half of it.
“It’s not a 100 percent funded grant, but it’s helpful,” Bachman said.
Schaefferstown Chief Carl Bucher also called the money helpful.
“We’re going to be buying some extra hose,” he said. “We’re getting 1,000 feet of inch-and-three-quarter hose and 800 feet of 2 c-inch hose. We had some old hose, and we needed some.”
Bucher said the company’s budget is stretched thin, due in part to the purchase of a new truck to replace the 1981 pumper the company is currently using. The new truck is supposed to arrive in October, he said, at which point the company will probably sell the old truck.
Local firefighting forces in rural areas or communities with fewer than 10,000 residents qualified for the aid, according to the release. Last year, the grant program awarded $666,553 to 172 fire companies statewide.
“The readiness of these volunteers is demonstrated even further every spring and summer when they routinely answer assistance calls coming from other states,” Allan said in the release. “These federal grants allow firefighters from smaller companies to concentrate more on public safety and training while easing their fiscal constraints.”
Grant recipients were named after a review of fire company applications meeting a May 2011 deadline. Grants and other assistance are provided through the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ Bureau of Forestry, with funding supplied by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service through the Cooperative Forestry Assistance Act of 1978.
The key objective is to better equip and train volunteers to save lives and protect property in unprotected or inadequately protected rural areas, the release states. Grant recipients are selected based on vulnerability and adequacy of existing fire protection.
In reviewing applications, the state placed priority on applications seeking funds for projects that included purchasing wildfire-suppression equipment and protective clothing, the release states. Grants were also awarded for mobile or portable radios, dry hydrant installations, wildfire prevention and mitigation, wildfire-fighting training, and to convert and maintain federal excess vehicles used for fire suppression.
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