VIDEO: With the Black Hills being susceptible to wildfires, Rapid City’s Legal and Finance Committee wants to ensure the town’s risk of experiencing a catastrophic wildfire is reduced. Wednesday, the committee recommended to authorize the full council to accept and sign a grant agreement for the Western States Fire Management Wildland Urban Interface Grants.
The more than $630,000 in grant money would help the Rapid City Fire Department address the risk of wildfires in town by assisting mitigation activities. The goal is to lower the risk of a catastrophic wildfire occurring and the negative impacts it can have on infrastructure, life, and property.
”The grant program provides basically $300,000, and the city matches that with the value of our equipment and the time we’re putting into the wildfire program already,” said the Wildfire Mitigation Lieutenant Eric O’Connor. The grants would cover the costs of 460 acres of prescribed burns that are in the wildland-urban interface.
