FEMA Authorizes Funds To Help Fight Wyoming’s Squirrel Creek Fire 

Release Date: July 2, 2012
Release Number: R8-12-022

» 2012 Region VIII News Releases

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 the Squirrel Creek Fire, located in Albany County in south-central Wyoming.

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.

On July 1, the state of Wyoming submitted a request for a Fire Management Assistance Grant, as the fire was threatening 250 homes in and around the communities of Fox Creek, Lake Owen, Woods Landing, Jelm, Albany and Hattie’s Lake about 45 miles southwest of Laramie.

High #230 was closed. Highway # 10 is threatened, as is the municipal watershed for the cities of Laramie and Cheyenne in the area. Mandatory evacuations took place for approximately 50 to 60 residences and another 175 on a one-hour evacuation alert. 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.

These grants do not provide assistance to individual home or business owners and do not cover other infrastructure damage caused by the fire.

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.

Last Modified: Monday, 02-Jul-2012 13:59:27