Southeast Texas rural fire departments receive $160K in grants from Texas Forest Service

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Firefighters in several Southeast Texas counties got a little help from recently from the Texas A&M Forest Service but it wasn't in the usual form of bulldozers, tanker planes or manpower.

Last week the Texas Forest Service's "Rural Volunteer Fire Department Assistant Grant Program" awarded more than $15.7 million in grants to rural fire departments around the state according to a news release from the Forest Service.

The funds are meant to help reimburse rural volunteer departments for fire trucks, training aids, slip-ons and chassis and various fire and rescue equipment . This year that includes helping pay for 70 fire trucks.

Since the grant program was created in 2002 it has provided more than than $336 million to rural volunteer departments according to the news release.

Here's the Southeast Texas Fire Departments that received grants totaling $160,000

• Orange County
  • Orange County ESD #4
    • Personal Protective Equipment $ 20,000.00
• Hardin County
  • Batson Fire Department
    • Training Aids $ 10,000.00
• Tyler County
  • Ivanhoe VFD
    • Fire and Rescue Equipment $ 20,000.00
• Newton County
  • Newton Volunteer Fire Department
    • Personal Protective Equipment $ 20,000.00
  • Burkeville Volunteer Fire Dept
    • Personal Protective Equipment $ 20,000.00
• Jasper County
  • East End VFD
    • Training Aids $ 10,000.00
  • Lake Rayburn FD
    • Personal Protective Equipment $ 20,000.00
  • Beech Grove VFD
    • Fire and Rescue Equipment $ 20,000.00
• Liberty County
  • Hull-Daisetta Volunteer Fire Department
    • Fire and Rescue Equipment $ 20,000.00

The rural volunteer fire department grants are applied for and distributed through Texas A&M Forest Service’s recently released FireConnect tool, providing both Texas A&M Forest Service and rural volunteer fire departments with a streamlined grant process portal.

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This is a developing story. We will update with more if and when we receive more confirmed information.

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