The Weatherford Fire Department recently was awarded a $289,000 grant from FEMA.
“We are excited,” Weatherford Fire Chief Mike Karlin said. “This grant came from FEMA through the assistance firefighters grant program and this grant was created in 2001. It is a pool of money put out by congress every year to assist fire departments around the country.”
Karlin said he and staff have been applying for this grant for about 5 years and they plan to use the grant money for fire safety equipment.
“Finally, this is the year we get the grant,” Karlin said. “We will use this money for selfcontained breathing apparatus (SCBA) which we wear when we go into structure fires, car fires and hazardous environments.”
Karlin said he and staff are ecstatic about the new equipment.
“This is going to be awesome,” Karlin said. “It was a collaborative effort through a lot of people and the fire department helped put this together from getting information about the grant and writing the application. Yolanda Creswell, the economic developer helped us because she has a lot of grant experience. All of the stars fell together at the right time and we are super excited about this grant.”