FEMA Authorizes Funds to Help Fight High Park Fire

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has authorized the use of federal funds to help with firefighting costs for the High Park Fire located in Larimer County. 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.

The Fire is now at 20,000 acres and growing, and still there is zero percent containment. To stay up to date on the High Park Fire click here.

From a FEMA News Release:

FEMA Regional Administrator Robin Finegan approved the state's request for a Federal Fire Management Assistance Grant (FMAG) at 7:19 p.m on June 9, 2012. The fire has burned in excess of 4,000 acres of federal and state/private lands.

At the time of the request the fire was threatening 150 homes in and around Fort Collins, population 299,630. The fire is also threatening campgrounds in the area, the Stove Canyon and Poudre Canyon watersheds and an unknown amount of other infrastructure.

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.

FMAGs 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.

More information can be found at:

Public information is available at the Larimer County Emergency Information line at 970-498-5500 where Information Officers are answering the phone, and at larimer.org or on Twitter @larimersheriff, or Inciweb .

Residents can sign up to receive emergency notifications on cell phones or email at www.leta911.org .