Two area fire protection districts received some monetary help last week from a matching grant program with the Missouri Department of Conservation.
The Stark City Volunteer Fire Department and the Neosho Area Fire Protection District received separate checks of $545 and $555, respectively.
“We are going to use this check to put some more equipment on our truck,” said Wayne Wolgamott, fire chief in Stark City. “It will help us on wildfires, structure fires, and it is something that we have been needing. We will probably add it to this engine (the one that is in the photograph). It is going to be our first response unit.”
One item Wolgamott said they would purchase with the funding will be foam. He said making the foam used to be difficult.
“You had to have the container with the chemical, you sucked it in, injected it into the water,” he said. “Now you have cartridges you place in the nozzle, screw the nozzle back in and as the water flows into it, it will make a foam. That is what we have gone to. It will be quicker in absorbing and covering the fire, keeping the oxygen off of it helps shut the fire down.”
The chief added, “(The funding) will cover half of the equipment that we purchased and that is going to be sufficient for what we are normally doing. This will give us two nozzles, two different flow rates, and we will have cartridges to last those two nozzles for quite a while. I think that we are in good shape as far as the foam.”
During June, July and August, matching funds grant checks for rural fire departments were being distributed by the conservation department’s forestry division. A total of 169 fire departments received checks of up to $3,000 to help them with the purchase of personal protection gear and firefighting equipment for wildfire as well as structure fires. The total this year was $373,585. During the last 28 years, nearly $5,904,429 has been distributed to rural fire departments to help increase the safety of their firefighters and provide them with better firefighting equipment.
“These are our matching-fund checks that come out every year. The department applies for those, it is a 50/50 match,” said Terry Cook, resource assistant with the conservation department. “So the fire department had to expend the money up front (so that would have been $1,090 for Stark City). They turn in the receipts.”
Cook noted the Neosho Area Fire Protection District used their money for wild land equipment such as chainsaws, chainsaw chaps and other wild land gear.
“We have received a lot of help from these guys (Missouri Department of Conservation),” added Wolgamott. “They have helped us on matching funds several times in the past 20 years. It has been a boost — a big boost — for us.”
