EPA pulls $1M grant for Flagstaff wildfire resources ahead of critical fire season
FLAGSTAFF, AZ (AZFamily) — Up in Flagstaff, people and cities are preparing for fire season. But now, people are looking for answers after a $1 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to help the city provide resources before, during, and after wildfires was cancelled.
The city was using the EPA grant to create community hubs where people could escape wildfire smoke, get emergency supplies and more. But less than a year into the three-year grant, it was canceled.
Flagstaff is no stranger to wildfires. So when it received a $1 million EPA grant last year, sustainably director Nicole Antonopoulos said they used it to create three resilience hubs that help people prepare for wildfires. One is a mobile unit, and the other two operate at the Murdoch Community Center and Market of Dreams.
However, late last month, the city received a letter from the EPA stating that it had been terminated.
Antonopoulos said they’ve used $400,000 of the funding. The funding was being used to help community members “build their own ready-set-go kits, to understand what evacuation routes are, and to understand who to connect with during a wildfire,” she explained.
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The majority of Flagstaff homes don’t have air conditioning, so people have to keep their windows open in the summer heat. Because of that, the remaining funds were planned to go toward installing clean air systems in the hubs for high-smoke days.
“The hard part of losing this grant right now is because we are going into a very potentially intense wildfire season,” Antonopoulos said.
Four jobs have also been terminated, and education programs and the distribution of emergency response kits have been cut.
“We see this as a tremendous loss of information and resources,” Antonopoulos said.
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She said the volunteers will still work to keep what they can running at the hubs, but it will not be the same.
Flagstaff Mayor Becky Daggett said it’s extremely frustrating because what they’re doing with the grant aligns with the EPA’s goals. The city is appealing the decision, but it could take up to 6 months to get an answer, which would be after fire season has passed.
“We live in the largest ponderosa pine forest in the world. We’re ground zero for these emergencies,” Daggett said. “So I’m just pleading that they take a second look at this and realize how critical it is to the people of Flagstaff.”
Antonopoulos said people can protect themselves by hardening their homes and ensuring they’re fire-safe. For more information, you can visit the Flagstaff Fire Department’s website.
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