Mega mitigation grant awarded
Mega mitigation grant awarded
25 September 2007
published by www.koaa.com
Pueblo, CO, USA — A million dollar grant is on the way to Colorado Springs and El Paso County for wildfire mitigation. For Colorado Springs Fire Department it is the largest grant for wildfire prevention ever received.
The money comes from FEMA, the Federal Office of Emergency Management. Hundreds of pages went into the grant proposal by Colorado Springs Fire Department. FEMA gave only the one grant for wildfire mitigation in Colorado.
“This will keep us busy for three years” according to Christina Randall who put together the grant proposal for the fire department. There are over three hundred acres where Colorado Springs meets the mountains that will be mitigated.
FEMA leaders believe the cost of prevention is much less than the price tag of facing a wildfire. Randall says, “For every dollar of mitigation we save nationwide four dollars on the disaster end.”
There is a matching requirement for the money. It is earned through volunteer work hours by people in the community. For every dollar earned FEMA matches with three.