A recently awarded federal grant will bring more than a half-million dollar’s worth of radios to city and county firefighters.

A total of $520,332 was awarded through the Department of Homeland Security’s Assistance to Firefighters Grants Program.

That amount represents the federal share toward a $650,000 project that will result in the purchase of 219 portable, handheld radios and 79 vehicle-mounted radios for the Bowling Green Fire Department and the nine Warren County volunteer fire departments.

BGFD Deputy Chief John Weatherbee said that the radios will have analog and digital capabilities, improving communication between firefighters.

“The funds are putting radios in every fire department,” Weatherbee said. “This is our first cooperative grant effort on the Assistance to Firefighters Grants Program.”

Each county volunteer fire department will receive 18 handheld radios.

Weatherbee said the city’s share comes out to about $120,000, which would buy 57 handheld radios and 13 vehicle-mounted radios.

BGFD Sgt. Brett Smith and office assistant Buffy Watt did crucial legwork in gathering data during the grant application process.

Warren County Emergency Management Director Ronnie Pearson said the grant will provide much-needed updates to the radio system used by firefighters and improve communications between multiple agencies as well as among firefighters in a single department.

“Some of the radios that we have in service today are from the original system’s inception in 1996,” Pearson said. “This grant will allow the new radios to be utilized on a future new system for the city and the county.”

“This is also going to reduce the cost to the taxpayers of having to replace those radios,” Pearson said.

Pearson estimated the radios would be available in all fire departments within three to six months.