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Anchorage Fire Department urges planning now for wildfire office and SAFER grant sunset
Summary
AFD told the Public Safety Committee the municipality should plan now to sustain a new wildfire mitigation office after federal grant funding ends in 2027 and to budget for 18 SAFER-funded firefighters whose grant expires Feb. 3, 2026.
Doug Shrugge and Division Chief John Glover of the Anchorage Fire Department briefed the committee on Feb. 5 about two pending funding challenges: the sustainability of a rebuilt wildfire mitigation office and the impending end of a FEMA SAFER grant that funds 18 firefighter positions.
Shrugge said Anchorage received roughly $8,000,000 in a U.S. Forest Service grant in 2023 to stand up wildfire work, buy wildland personal protective equipment, establish a woodlot, produce a prioritized fuels treatment plan and rewrite the community wildfire protection plan (CWPP). He said the wildfire office had been closed in 2008 and that staffing and activities have…
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