COLUMBUS, OH -- Nineteen fire departments and support organizations across Ohio will receive a total of $82,332 for training, safety equipment and emergency water access projects, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR).
Administered by the ODNR Division of Forestry, volunteer fire assistance grants provide federal matching funds of up to $10,000 to communities with populations under 10,000.
"These grants provide valuable resources to assist local fire departments in providing wildland and rural community fire protection," said John Dorka, chief of the ODNR Division of Forestry. "We are committed to helping local fire departments with limited budgets to effectively perform their duties."
Funds are used to upgrade equipment at existing fire departments, to assist new departments with organizational, training, and equipment costs and to upgrade excess equipment provided by the U.S. Forest Service.
More than 800 rural Ohio fire departments have received assistance since the VFA program was established in 1978.
The ODNR Division of Forestry also coordinates a program that provides excess federal equipment such as trucks and generators to 325 fire departments located within the division's fire protection area (eastern and southeastern Ohio).
Since July 1996, more than $7,000,000 worth of equipment has been acquired and loaned to local fire departments by the ODNR Division of Forestry.
Of the nearly 1,300 fire departments within Ohio, some 900 are classified as rural and are primarily staffed by volunteers. The average annual budget for an Ohio rural fire department is $24,000 per year, with many fire departments operating on $5,000 or less annually.