New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department: Volunteer Fire Assistance Program

The Volunteer Fire Assistance (VFA) Program grant is provided through emergency funds made available by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service (Forest Service) to protect communities from catastrophic wildland fire. Grant funding focuses primarily on wildland fire objectives including: 1) equipping rural fire departments with wildland fire equipment; 2) organizing rural fire departments for wildland fire response; and 3) wildland fire prevention. Structural firefighting objectives are a lower priority, but may be considered if benefit from these projects will carry over into wildland objectives.

The New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department (EMNRD) will give higher priority to projects that enhance local governmental entities’ capabilities to safely respond to and manage wildland fires through the response of their rural/volunteer fire departments, focusing on the wildland objectives described above. EMNRD may also give consideration to structural fire objectives showcasing a regional benefit, though this will be given a lower priority.

The primary focus of this VFA funding is to strengthen a local government’s capability to organize and respond to wildland fire. Examples include:

• Projects that provide for the purchase of wildland fire equipment.
• Funding fire prevention projects that reduce the number of human caused fires and protect the public. Possible prevention projects include defensible space workshops, development of debris burning permit system, or adoption of wildland urban-interface ordinances.
• Hiring of a wildland coordinator to work with departments to set up wildland fire training, track wildland fire qualifications, and develop interagency agreements such as the New Mexico Resource Mobilization Plan.

Amount: The maximum grant amount for equipment projects is $20,000 and the maximum grant amount for prevention and organizational projects is $24,999. Applicants must be able to can provide a 10% cost-share match.

Eligibility: Municipalities, counties, and tribes and pueblos that service rural communities with less than 10,000 people.

Link: http://www.emnrd.state.nm.us/SFD/RFPs/RFPMain.html

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