Photo Credit: U.S. Army National Guard.
FROM: U.S. FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY
DENVER, Colo. -- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has authorized the use of federal funds to help with firefighting costs for Utah’s Rose Crest Fire in Salt Lake County. This is the fourth Fire Management Assistance Grant has approved in the last week.
FEMA Regional Administrator Robin Finegan approved a Fire Management Assistance Grant (FMAG) upon receiving the state’s request. At the time of the request, the fire was threatening approximately 150 homes in Herrmann City, Utah with a population of 20,000. The fire is also threatening a military installation, a residential subdivision and volatile brush.
The authorization makes FEMA funding available to pay 75 percent of the state’s eligible firefighting costs for managing, mitigating and controlling the fire. These grants do not provide assistance to individual home or business owners and do not cover other infrastructure damage caused by the fire.
Fire Management Assistance Grants are provided through the President's Disaster Relief Fund and made available by FEMA to assist in fighting fires that threaten to cause a major disaster. Eligible items can include expenses for field camps; equipment use, repair and replacement; mobilization and demobilization activities; and tools, materials and supplies.
Since Friday, June 22, FEMA has approved Fire Management Assistance Grants for the Dump Fire in Utah County, the Wood Hollow Fire in Sanpete County and the Clay Springs Fire in Millard County, after it was determined that the fires threatened to create a major disaster. There are currently five other large fires burning uncontrolled in Utah.
FEMA's mission is to support our citizens and first responders and to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards.
