Nevada fire agencies awarded more than $1.5 million in Department of Homeland Security grants
Nevada fire agencies in Lyon County, Elko County, Nye County and Washoe County will receive grants totalling more than $1.5 million, Sen. Dean Heller announced on Thursday. The funding from the Department of Homeland Security comes amid a devastating fire year for the West and Nevada, where a single fire ripped through the range, burning more than 400,000 acres in July.
The grants are part of two programs. One is known as SAFER, or the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response, a program that provides funds to local fire agencies in an effort to help support staffing requirements and volunteer firefighters. The Central Lyon County Fire Protection District will receive a grant of $491,291 under that program, Heller’s office said.
The other program, the Assistance to Firefighters Grant, will fund new gear for the Elko County Fire Protection District, Nye County Emergency Management, the Reno Fire Department and Central Lyon County Fire Protection District. Those grants will total $1,092,475.
Heller’s office announced the grants in a press release, though they have yet to be listed online.
“The firefighters throughout the state of Nevada work tirelessly to ensure the safety of all of our communities, and it’s essential that we continue to protect those who protect us,” Heller said in a statement. “The resources announced will go a long way toward providing critical support and additional opportunities to ultimately enable Nevada’s fire departments to hire highly trained individuals.”
With invasive species like cheatgrass, increased fuel on the range and prolonged drought, wildfires in the West have become more extreme. In the early morning hours after July 4, a wildfire started near Winnemucca and quickly became the country’s largest blaze and the largest single fire in Nevada history, burning more than 400,000 acres of land, twice the size of New York City. It wiped out grazing allotments as well as habitat for sage grouse and mule deer. Land managers expect recovery from that fire, the Martin Fire, to take years, if not decades.