Collier firefighters get $2,975 state grant
Leland Jordan, forest fire inspector for the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry, recently presented a $2,975 check to the Collier Volunteer Fire Department. The department used the funds to purchase wildland fire suppression gear. In the photo (from left) are Jordan; Keith Hoover, assistant chief of the Collier VFD; and Jeff Cunningham, chief of the Collier VFD. The Collier Volunteer Fire Department has received a check for $2,975 from the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry to improve its protection capability.
The funds were used to purchase wildland fire suppression gear.
These funds were 50 percent matching funds made available through the U.S. Forest Service and the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry, and authorized by the Rural Development Act passed by Congress in 1972.
Title IV of the Rural Development Act authorizes and directs the Secretary of Agriculture to provide financial, technical, and other assistance to State Foresters or other appropriate officials in cooperative efforts to organize, train, or equip local forces in rural areas and communities under 10,000 population to prevent, control, and suppress fires that threaten human life, livestock, wildlife, crops, pastures, orchards, woodland, farmsteads, and other improvements in rural areas. Therefore, the selection of the participating agencies will be based on vulnerability and adequacy of existing fire protection.
According to District Forester Edward A. Callahan, 178 fire companies in the Forbes Forest District have received $273,147.72 in matching funds under this program.
For more information, contact the Pennsylvania homepage at www.state.pa.us, or visit DCNR directly at www.dcnr.state.pa.us.