Calif. city awarded $6M FEMA grant to hire, buy aerial truck

The Stockton City Council voted unanimously last week to accept a $4.8 million grant to hire nine full-time firefighters, and a nearly $1.2 million grant to purchase the truck

October 20, 2021 05:44 PM

20211020-AMX-US-NEWS-STOCKTON-AWARDED-6-MILLION-FEMA-1-SK.jpg — In this 2019 file photo, Stockton firefighter Andrew Schneider washes a fire engine in front of Fire Station 6 in Stockton.

Aaron Leathley
The Record

STOCKTON, Calif. — Stockton was awarded nearly $6 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency funds to hire additional firefighters and to purchase an aerial ladder fire truck.

The Stockton City Council voted unanimously last week to accept a $4.8 million grant to hire nine full-time firefighters, and a nearly $1.2 million grant to purchase the truck.

Last Monday, a fire in Lathrop left a resident severely burned and destroyed five homes. Another fire in the Delta razed 25 homes, and high winds in the San Joaquin Valley and across central and northern California raised the risk of fires.

The funding comes toward the end of California’s fire season in which more than 8,000 wildfires have burned nearly 2.5 million acres. Last year’s record-setting fire season saw nearly 10,000 fires burn more than 4.2 million acres.

In 2020, FEMA awarded Stockton firefighters more than a million dollars for paramedic training and personal protective equipment to respond to COVID-19.

In 2011, the city laid off 36 firefighters and closed a station in southwest Stockton in an effort to fill a general fund deficit.