DELAND, Fla. — Volusia County Fire Rescue officials say the organization has received its largest Assistance to Firefighters Grant in division history.

The grant, which is just over $583,000, was provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and county leaders say it will be used to expand firefighter training programs.

What You Need To Know

  • Volusia County Fire Rescue officials say the organization has received a $580,000 FEMA grant

  • Volusia County Fire Chief Joe King said the grant will support continuous training for firefighters

  • He said the grant will fund training for about 200 firefighters in total, including training more than 100 firefighters to become Certified Driver/Operators

  • This year, FEMA awarded the Assistance to Firefighters Grants to eight Central Florida organizations

Volusia County Fire Chief Joe King said the grant will support continuous training for firefighters

“It's continuous training for current firefighters that are here,” King said. “At all levels, our firefighters, personnel that drive the trucks, as well as our lieutenants and battalions.”

King said the grant will speed up training by allowing the division to do it in-house, instead of having to send department members to classes across the state.

“What's exciting about it is the fact that we're able to offer all this training in a condensed time,” King said. “We're able to get a lot more of it done in this next two years than if we were having to do it on our own and it be spread out.”

Deputy Fire Chief Jeff Alberts said the grant will support training for about 200 firefighters in total, and is split up into two objectives. The first is instruction in incident command.

“On the incident command side of the house, we are looking to train 90 people,” Alberts said. “That would include pretty much all of our battalion chiefs, all the way up to our division and deputy chiefs.”

The grant will also fund training for more than 100 firefighters to become Certified Driver/Operators. Alberts said to have all firefighters and lieutenants be Driver/Operator-certified is a major accomplishment for any department. 

“For us to get everybody to that point gives us a lot of versatility to move people around,” Alberts said. “More importantly, it gives us the ability to have everybody trained at a level that most departments will never see.”

Lt. Jeremy Karaginis is the President of Volusia County Professional Firefighters’ Association, and said the grant is crucial for training. 

“Without these grants, you know, my 200-plus firefighters can't get this level of training,” Karaginis said. “So they're taking the initiative on safety of being proactive within the county and making us one of the best in Central Florida.”

In a press release, the county said: “The funding will significantly bolster the division's ability to respond to emergencies and serve the community with the highest level of expertise.”

This year, FEMA awarded the Assistance to Firefighters Grants to eight Central Florida organizations. View the chart below to see which local organizations received the grants.

On its website, FEMA said the fire safety grants “fund critically needed resources to equip and train emergency personnel, enhance efficiencies and support community resilience.”