Fire District No. 5 receives water donation

DAVENPORT--Lincoln County Fire District No. 5 recently received a donation of canned emergency drinking water from leading brewer, Anheuser-Busch, to help provide critical hydration to its responders during this year's wildfire season.

On June 22, King Beverage Inc, a local Anheuser-Busch wholesaler partner, dropped off 2,352 cans to the department to help support its wildfire response. Maintaining firefighters' hydration during long incidents or disasters such as wildfires is a major safety concern for many departments.

"Firefighters lose a tremendous amount of fluid during high-intensity response such as battling wildfires. Proper hydration is critical to ensure the safety of our firefighters and to keep them performing at their best," said Chief Craig Sweet. "Thanks to this water donation from Anheuser-Busch and the National Volunteer Fire Council, we have the resources to keep our firefighters hydrated and ready to respond."

Davenport Fire Department and Lincoln County Fire District 5 jointly are jointly made up of 60 volunteers who protect the city of Davenport and approximately 365 square miles, which also includes the community of Davenport with 668 residences, as well as the retirement and recreational communities of 7-Bays and Deer Meadows with 1465 homes and structures.

There are three stations in the district. There are approximately of 233,643 acres in the district. The northern tier of the district is the backwaters of Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River and the Spokane arm of the river. It borders the National Park Service.

The ground in the district is dryland farm ground as well as more than 90,000 acres of timber ground. Of this, 4,800 are Bureau of Land Management and 10,600 are on Department of Natural Resource property.

The water was donated by Anheuser-Busch through a partnership with the National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC).Anheuser-Busch has a longstanding tradition of providing emergency drinking water and supplies for disaster relief efforts. The company periodically pauses beer production each year to apply its production and logistics expertise to can clean, safe drinking water that is ready to distribute when disaster strikes. Since 1988, the brewer has donated more than 90 million cans of emergency drinking water to communities impacted by natural disasters and other crises.

Building on this commitment, the brewer teamed up with the NVFC – the leading nonprofit membership association representing the interests of the volunteer fire, emergency medical, and rescue services – in 2019 to provide emergency drinking water to help firefighters stay hydrated and healthy when responding to wildfires and large incidents. To date, the program has donated nearly 4.9 million cans of water to volunteer firefighters across the country.