Gilmer is among 10 Georgia counties with fire departments receiving wildfire fighting equipment courtesy of the Georgia Forestry Commission (GFC).
Personnel from the GFC’s local and state offices presented the equipment to the Gilmer and Pickens Fire Departments at a ceremony held last week at the GFC office in Jasper.
More than $36,000 in equipment is being split between the 10 counties, all of which had extensive wildfires last year.
“We had a very busy fire season. We had to put the burn ban in place because it got to the point that we were so busy with brush fires,” said Gilmer Fire Chief Daniel Kauffman.
“That ended up being successful, and we were able to get things under control until we could get the drought index up to where it needed to be.”
The assistance was made possible by the GFC’s Rural Fire Defense Volunteer Fire Assistance grant program and the U.S. Forest Service Cooperative Fire Program.
“It’s a pass-thru grant the Forest Service gives us, and we’re able to dispense it out to county fire departments who need it,” said Emily Hamilton, GFC rural fire defense manager.
“We got the grant this year and had to decide what to do with the money. Back in November, these 10 counties, which Gilmer and Pickens are part of, got hit pretty heavily with wildfires. We had to bring a team up here, and it was a pretty bad season. These fire departments were a huge assistance in helping us with the wildfires. We thought we would give back to them to say thank you and resupply some of the stuff they had to use on the wildfires.”
The $3,767 of equipment received by Gilmer Fire and Rescue includes seven wildland fire helmets, nine flame-retardant wildland fire shirts, seven pairs of wildland fire gloves, three fire rakes and four commercial leaf blowers.
The flame retardant clothing helps firefighters with not having to wear their heavier structure gear when attending to wildfires, Hamilton
noted.
“We are very pleased to be awarded this (equipment). It will be assigned to our trucks that handle brush fires and structure fires. It will be first-line use for us,” said Kauffman.
“This is very useful, and it will help us to create clean boundaries and clean lines between fires and approaching structures. We were one of only 10 counties in the state, and it’s nice to see two counties this close together (Gilmer and Pickens) be awarded.”
With Gilmer’s ample woods and national forestland, the forestry commission and county fire department often work together in fighting fires, Kauffman confirmed.
“We appreciate working close with forestry. They’re kind of like the State Farm of fire departments — like a good neighbor. When you see them pulling up, it’s kind of a relief. When we’ve been working (a fire) and they pull up, it’s another lifeline that gives us a little bit of a breather at that point,” he added.
A different GFC grant is usually awarded to the county fire department on a yearly basis, noted Hamilton.
“The regular Volunteer Fire Assistance grant is a 50/50 grant that they’re (able to use) to buy structure gear and any of the equipment they’re needing for their stations,” she added.
Other counties receiving the grant-funded wildfire equipment are: Dade, Walker, Catoosa, Whitfield, Murray, Gordon, Chattooga and Floyd.
Leland Bass, fire management officer for the GFC region that includes Gilmer, said the public can stay informed about wildfires across Georgia by visiting the forestry commission website GATrees.org.
“It’s called our fire response public viewer, which is at a link on the website. You can zoom out and see every wildfire in the state that we’ve responded to,” he added.