Bolstering NewView
Defense Production Act means more fire hoses from OKC nonprofit.
“Our employees are thrilled and proud that they’re able to support our first responders in this way.” Lauren Branch, president, CEO of NewView
An Oklahoma City nonprofit will continue to play a major role in stifling wildfires raging across the country after President Joe Biden authorized the Defense Production Act to help areas in crisis.
NewView Oklahoma employs visually impaired and blind workers and is the main producer of fire hoses for the U.S. Forest Service. The Defense Production Act eventually allowed the company to more than double production, according to Lauren Branch, president and CEO of NewView.
But getting to that point was a bit of a process, she explained.
The company has been contracted with the Forest Service since the early 2000s and each year gets replenishment orders in late fall for hoses for the following fire season. After beginning production for the 2021 fire season, NewView received notice that one of the raw materials used in the production of hose liners, a resin also used to make syringes, was being diverted for COVID-19 vaccination efforts due to the Biden administration’s initial Defense Production Act authorization.
“Nobody was exceptionally concerned because we were still going to get an allocation of materials,” Branch said. “Then in February the winter storms hit and the chemical plants along the Gulf Coast were impacted, and they’re the ones who make the resin.”
Materials were diverted and production capacities were limited just as fire season ramped up in what is looking to be another potentially record-setting season, Branch said. Inventories were reaching the point of exhaustion.
“Something had to be done to free up the supply chain so we could make more hoses to give to the firefighters,” she said.
Biden switched the authorization about six weeks ago to get materials into the system to make hoses.
Additionally, Biden on Monday pointed to wildfires burning through the West to argue for his $3.5 trillion spending plan, calling year-round fires and other extreme weather a climate change reality the nation can no longer ignore.
Biden spoke during a briefing in Boise, Idaho, while visiting the National Interagency Fire Center, which coordinates the government’s response to wildfires.
Millions of acres of land in several Western states have burned already this year, he noted.
“The reality is we have a global warming problem, a serious global warming problem, and it’s consequential and what’s going to happen is, things are not going to go back,” Biden said.
For the employees of NewView Oklahoma, the work the company provides is in itself a chance to overcome barriers and do meaningful work, Branch said.
“Our employees are thrilled and proud that they’re able to support our first responders in this way,” she said. “The unemployment rate amongst people who are blind or visually impaired in our community is over 70%.”
NewView employees are more than capable and willing to do the work and doing so allows them to do all the things many people never give a second thought, such as buying a house or paying for a child’s education, Branch said.
“The Forest Service and the military don’t view us any differently than any other contractor,” she said. “We’re held to the same standards and meet the same quality and delivery requirements. We just happen to have a workforce that’s predominantly individuals who are blind.”