SUN PRAIRIE, Wisconsin (Oct. 14, 2025) – Emergency response departments supporting rural communities across Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin received $605,998 to fund much needed equipment and technology upgrades. Through its Fund for Rural America, Compeer Financial awarded the 160 Emergency Response Equipment Grants to help volunteer fire, rescue and ambulance departments improve their operational efficiency, safety and response times.

Rural volunteer emergency response departments are struggling to service their communities due to fewer volunteer first responders, outdated personal protective equipment (PPE), increases in service requests and rising costs for essential equipment. Grants like these from Compeer are one way departments can continue to serve and protect their local communities. Due to budget constraints as volunteer departments, they are heavily reliant on public funding, grants, donations and local support to fund needed equipment, gear and training.

“For first responders to give their best, they need to be equipped with the proper tools. We recognize the challenges volunteer emergency response departments face with funding, and we hope these grants help give them the life-saving equipment necessary to effectively respond to critical situations,” said Karen Schieler, manager of Compeer Giving at Compeer Financial. 

Six themes emerged from applications for this year’s grants:

1. Communication Equipment: Many rural areas experience cell coverage gaps, making communication difficult especially during multi-department responses when time is critical. Departments requested upgraded radios, pagers and communication systems to ensure reliable communication with dispatch, law enforcement and other emergency departments.
2. Safety and Protective Gear: Many departments are using PPE, such as helmets, boots, gloves and turnout gear, that no longer meet safety standards. New gear will help ensure the safety and confidence of firefighters, improve operational efficiency, and help retain and attract volunteers by providing a safer working environment.
3. Specialized Rescue Equipment: Rural communities experience rescue scenarios, including grain bin rescues and wildland firefighting, that are different than those in urban areas. Departments requested modern tools like thermal imaging cameras, gas detectors, rescue struts and extrication tools to improve speed, safety and effectiveness in these unique and other emergency situations.
4. Medical Equipment: Many rural areas experience long ambulance response times. Upgrades to medical equipment like LUCAS devices, vital signs monitors and CO₂ detectors were requested to improve patient care and outcomes. 
5. Ventilation and Lighting: Firefighters encounter numerous challenges during calls in rural communities. Departments requested new battery-powered ventilation fans and LED lighting to improve efficiency and safety by reducing smoke damage and improving visibility during operations.
6. Training Equipment: Much like their PPE, training equipment has become outdated. Departments plan to purchase new

Morgan Hughes
The State
(TNS)

The nearly 50-year-old building that houses a downtown-adjacent Columbia Fire Station has been crumbling for years. The station at 1015 Ferguson St., between Assembly Avenue and the Olympia neighborhood, was built as a floral warehouse in the 1970s and converted into a fire station in the 1990s.

After years of talking about renovations, the station is finally being replaced. The city of Columbia is looking to spend approximately $12 million to build a new station, as the area in and around Olympia swells with new student rentals and other construction. At least some of that cost will be paid by federal Community Development Block Grant dollars.

“The current station is a real mess,” said Viola Hendley, a community leader in the Olympia neighborhood and a longtime advocate for replacing the station, which she said leaks and floods during heavy rain.

Are more trucks needed?

Beyond the station’s poor conditions are concerns that the single fire truck the station houses doesn’t provide the man power some say the area needs as student housing has swelled in and around Olympia over the last decade.

“With an influx of people and new construction, the City of Columbia must provide additional fire and emergency resources to the station’s service area to maintain the level of response capacity necessary to protect lives and property,” reads the city’s statement to prospective builders for the new station.

That statement continues, “With expansion of housing in the area, and the proximity to the University of South Carolina Campus, the City has chosen replacement of the station as a priority project … to bring more comprehensive emergency response capacity to this largely residential area.”

But at least in the short term, the new station won’t mean additional firefighters, which for years has stayed at five people, who make up one engine company and a battalion chief.

Michael DeSumma, a spokesperson for the Columbia-Richland Fire Department, said that in the future, the department will “review resources allocated to the station and adjust as needed to meet the needs of the community.” But for now, there won’t be any changes in the number of firefighters serving the roughly 2.5-mile radius city/county Station 2 is responsible for.

The fire department said it could not provide an average response time for the engine at that station, “since the locations Engine 2 responds to varies from call to call.”

Hendley said she’d hoped the construction of a new station would mean more firefighters.

“We need the fire house here, but we also need more personnel,” Hendley said, pointing to the ever-expanding supply of student housing, not only in Olympia but also around Williams-Brice stadium and new apartments on Huger, Assembly and other downtown thoroughfares.

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