West TN fire departments receive $2 million in grant funding during Hub City check presentation

JACKSON, Tenn. — First responders from all across West Tennessee made their way to the Hub City for a check presentation.

“The reason we’re doing this is about 5 years ago our leadership did an assessment where we went across the state and we met volunteer fire department from one end of the state to the next we saw some real glaring problems and some real worn out equipment that these volunteer fire departments was using,” said Kevin Walters with the Tennessee Fire Marshal’s Office.

Volunteer fire departments and rescue squads received a total of $2 million across 47 stations in West Tennessee alone.

These funds can help departments with helmets, air packets, to washing machines and much more.

“A lot of the volunteer fire departments received only nominal amount of money for their operations. So they were making due with equipment that should have been replaced. This program allows them to apply for grant money that goes towards buying that equipment, that they’re going to use to keep themselves safe and in return help keep the people of their community safe,” said Walters.

Walters shares that a majority of volunteer departments in Tennessee assist with fire safety.

The Madison County Fire Department has applied for multiple years for this grant. This year they received nearly $34,000.

“Our volunteer turnout gear especially had aged and at 10 years you’re supposed to get that replaced. We had run out of age on some of the that so it’s a huge help. It saves our tax payers in Madison County money and it makes our firefighters a lot safer,” said Walters.

The largest recipient, Northwest Lauderdale County Fire Department, received over $1,100,000.

“It’s a huge help and I know it helps all the small communities, but even as large as we are that means it just stretches the funds more. So it’s a huge help to us. At the end of the day making sure all of our people go home is a huge part of that,” said Walters.

This grant was made possible by Governor Bill Lee and the Tennessee General Assembly.

Next year’s amount will be $25 million for all Tennessee volunteer and rescue fire departments and the application for this grant opens in November of this year.

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