Skyland Fire Department gets $109,091 Homeland Security Grant

From Congressman Patrick McHenry:

Congressman McHenry Announces $109,091 Homeland Security Grant to Skyland Fire Department in Buncombe County
U.S. Department of Homeland Security awards Assistance to Firefighter Grant funds to local department

WASHINGTON – Today, Congressman Patrick McHenry (R-NC-10) announced $109,091 in a U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) grant to a local fire department in the Tenth Congressional District.

The Skyland Fire Department in Buncombe County received the grant which comes in the second round of this year’s Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program (AFG). The AFG Program aims to help firefighters and first responders throughout the country. Local departments applied for the grants through a program administered by the Grant Programs Directorate of the Federal Emergency Management Agency in cooperation with the U.S. Fire Administration.

Skyland Fire Chief Dennis Presley indicated that the grant funds would be used to replace the department’s entire stock of turnout gear (between 40-50 sets total). “This grant will be a tremendous help in protecting our firefighters by replacing our turnout gear,” said Chief Presley. “Our current gear it at the end of its useful life and this grant will allow us to replace it with gear that meets all of the latest protection standards.”

“It has been my pleasure on two occasions to have visited the Skyland Fire Department,” said Congressman McHenry. “Chief Presley and his team do a great job protecting the lives and property in such a large response area.”

A panel of fire experts at DHS awards AFG grants through a competitive review process. Congressman McHenry hosts workshops for 10th District EMS and fire departments to help guide personnel through the process and give them an inside view of what the committee looks for. The workshops are taught by Cherryville Fire Chief Jeff Cash, a nationally recognized expert in his field and former member of DHS’s AFG review committee. Since Congressman McHenry and Chief Cash began the program, 10th District EMS and fire departments have consistently won more grants than departments in most of North Carolina’s other Congressional Districts.

Skyland is the first Tenth District department to receive AFG funding thus far during the 2015 cycle. A total of $1,153,914 in AFG funds was awarded to Tenth District departments in the 2014 cycle.

Grants will continue to be announced in rounds weekly through the coming months.