The New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration (DFA) urges local fire departments to apply for a share of $25 million in grants that is available to help increase the number of paid first responders across the state.
According to a recent DFA press release, state and local fire departments can apply for the grants between May 15 and June 15, and the DFA will host a webinar at 2 p.m. May 14 on the Microsoft Teams app for any departments interested in applying.
These grants can be especially helpful to understaffed fire departments and emergency medical services workers in rural areas like Sandoval and Torrance counties, and for smaller towns where fire departments are staffed by volunteers. The DFA said that one of the goals of the program is to help transition volunteer firefighters to full-time paid positions, which will “improve response times, department capacity, and Insurance Services Office ratings.”
“Historically, rural and remote areas of our state struggle with fire and emergency medical responses due to extended response times, large response areas, a lack of firefighters and EMTs, and other challenges in these regions,” Sandoval County Fire Chief Eric Masterson said in a recent press release. “This initiative will dramatically help these communities by increasing the number of first responders available so we can ensure that every corner of our state, no matter how remote, has the support and resources needed when someone picks up the phone and calls for help.”
The City of Moriarty is one of the rural areas that relies on volunteer firefighters to combat what has already been a hectic 2024 fire season. According to Moriarty Fire Chief Todd Hart, the department currently has eight full-time and one part-time firefighters and 29 volunteers. They respond to over 1,000 calls a year and 90% of the calls are medical.
Hart said Moriarty Fire will be applying for the grants and that, “When we get a vacancy, we usually try to promote from within, with our volunteers.”
“We do have a good volunteer base. But these people have other jobs themselves and usually come [when] they can on their time off to just help the community. Sometimes it’s like 3 o’clock in the morning. We’ll have volunteers coming to a structure fire,” Hart said. “We could definitely use more people to mitigate the problem. I don’t know that there’s a fire department across the country that wouldn’t want more paid personnel.”
Fire departments and local governments interested in attending the DFA webinar can email Firefighter.fund@dfa.nm.gov.