BECKLEY, W. Va. — Gov. Jim Justice held a ceremony Aug. 14 at the West Virginia Division of Forestry Region Four Headquarters in Beckley, where he signed SB 1032, providing $4 million toward new firefighting equipment.
During the signing, Justice also announced the Region Four office will be renamed the Cody J. Mullens Region Four Headquarters. Mullens, 28, of Mount Hope was killed in the line of duty in April when a tree fell on him while working to contain a forest fire near Montgomery, in Fayette County. His family was present at the event and received ceremonial bills in his honor.
These funds will be used to purchase equipment to assist WV DOF foresters in fighting wildfires. The new equipment will include woodland dozers, fire engines, water tank trucks, utility terrain vehicles and thermal drones.
In addition to protecting West Virginia’s forests and fighting wildfires, crews from WV DOF volunteer to assist with wildfire relief efforts in other states. Recently, a crew of 20 WV DOF personnel trained for wildfire suppression left Aug. 1, to help with wildfire suppression in Montana. The team is assisting the Northern Rockies GACC with containing a fire at the Tin Soldier Complex in the Flathead National Forest in Montana. The fires associated with the Tin Soldier Complex were started by lightning July 30. WV DOF has also dispatched crews to various single-resource assignments this summer in Arizona, California, Michigan, Oregon and Pennsylvania.
