FEMA authorizes funds for Colorado fires
Jul 31, 2024, 1:15 PM | Updated: Aug 2, 2024, 6:06 am
(Photo by Chris Schneider/Getty Images)
FEMA the Federal Emergency Management Association has authorized the use of federal funds to help with firefighting costs for the Alexander Mountain Fire burning in Larimer County near Masonville, west of Loveland and the Stone Canyon Fire burning in Boulder County near Lyons.
A request from the state was put into FEMA this morning and the request was granted because the fires theatened such destruction that it would constitute a major disaster. FEMA remains open and in communication with the state should additional funds and requests be needed.
According to the press release;
The authorization makes FEMA funding available to pay 75-percent of the state’s eligible firefighting costs under an approved grant for managing, mitigating and controlling designated fires. It is a reimbursable program. These grants do not provide assistance to individual home or business owners and do not cover other infrastructure damage.
Therefore a grant can be awarded, a state must demonstrate that total eligible costs for the declared fire meet or exceed either the individual fire cost threshold — which is applied to single fires, or the cumulative fire cost threshold, which recognizes numerous smaller fires burning throughout a state.
FEMA’s mission is helping people before, during, and after disasters.