PADUCAH, Ky. (AP) -- A federal grant will help a western Kentucky fire department purchase a special boat to aid in fire and rescue operations.

U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield announced Wednesday that the Reidland-Farley Fire District received $229,443 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The grant will pay 75 percent of the cost of a 27-foot fiberglass boat that will have firefighting features as well as side-scan sonar, radar and search lights. Fire Chief Richard Tapp told The Paducah Sun that the department will pay for the rest.

Tapp says the boat's rescue and recovery capabilities are similar to those of an Illinois Conservation Police boat that found the bodies of two missing teenage duck hunters in Kentucky Lake in February.