Overtaxed volunteer firefighters in the Big Country region of West Texas are receiving a welcome boost, to their funding base that is thanks to the generosity of the Dodge Jones Foundation, based in Abilene. The foundation made emergency grant funding available through the Texas Forest Service to help replenish equipment and protective gear for 106 fire departments in 22 counties, which each have a $2,500 grant awaiting them.

"The Dodge Jones Foundation came to us during the height of the wildfire siege and asked what they could do to address the immediate needs of the departments in the Big Country region," said Texas Forest Service Director James Hull. "By giving each department a grant for $2,500, each one can purchase the items most vital to their continued operation, such as personal protective gear, replacement pumps and vehicle repairs. This will be a great benefit to their communities and the thousands of Texans they serve."

Most of these 106 volunteer fire departments (VFDs) are the first responders to wildfires in their areas, and they have seen more than their share of the state's largest and most destructive fires during the recent wildfire siege. Many of these departments responded to the 35,300-acre Carbon Fire and the 7,600-acre Cross Roads Fire that burned through the town of Cross Plains, making national news and devastating that area in many ways.

Fire Chief Raymond Helberg completes paperwork for a Dodge-Jones grant.
"This has been a tough fire season, and we're a very small department, only four years old, so we're grateful for any help we can get," said Fire Chief Raymond Helberg with Promontory Park VFD in Comanche County. "We lost all our wildland firefighting gear when our brush truck was burned over on the Carbon Fire. All of our wildland hose, nozzles, everything burned up including our medical supplies. It was quite a loss. We were fortunate that our firefighters only received 2nd degree burns, and they're both fine now."

The Dodge Jones Foundation gift will provide emergency individual grant funds to volunteer fire departments in the following counties: Brown, Callahan, Coke, Coleman, Comanche, Eastland, Erath, Fisher, Haskell, Irion, Jones, Mitchell, Nolan, Reagan, Runnels, Scurry, Shackelford, Stephens, Sterling, Taylor, Throckmorton and Tom Green.

If you are a VFD located in the above counties contact Traci Weaver, Fire Information Specialist at 817-579-1847 (office), 979-218-3035 (cell), tweaver@tfs.tamu.edu or contact Marilynn Grossman, Communications Manager at 979-458-6606 (office), 979-229-2037 (cell), mgrossman@tfs.tamu.edu