SEQUIM — Several regional firefighting agencies are teaming to try for a pair of two-year federal grants they say will significantly reduce damage caused by wildfires and structure fires in Clallam and Jefferson counties.
Representatives from the North Olympic Fire Prevention Association — a cooperative nonprofit made up of rural fire districts, the state Department of Natural Resources, the U.S. Forest Service and other agencies — on Tuesday met in Sequim to approve two grant applications worth $170,500.
The grants are funded through the U.S. Forest Service’s 2005 Western States Wildland Urban Interface program.
If awarded, they would establish programs offering services from Neah Bay to Port Townsend and from the Peninsula’s northern shoreline to the Mason County line.
One grant would pad the cooperative’s FireWise program, designed to bolster public awareness on fire safety and prevention.
The other coincides with the Department of Natural Resource’s fuel reduction program.