What is the purpose of SAFER?
The SAFER (Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response) Grant was created to provide funding directly to fire departments and volunteer firefighter interest organizations in order to help them increase the number of trained, “front-line” firefighters available in their communities.
The goal of SAFER is to enhance the local fire departments ability to comply with staffing, response and operational standards established by NFPA and OSHA (NFPA 1710 and/or NFPA 1720 and OSHA 1910.134 - see page 5 of the “2008 SAFER Program Guidance” or www.nfpa.org/SAFERActGrant for more details). Specifically, SAFER funds should assist local fire departments to increase their staffing and deployment capabilities in order to respond to emergencies whenever they may occur. As a result of the enhanced staffing, response times should be sufficiently reduced with an appropriate number of personnel assembled at the incident scene. Also, the enhanced staffing should provide that all front-line/first-due apparatus of SAFER grantees have a minimum of four trained personnel to meet the OSHA standards referenced above. Ultimately, a faster, safer and more efficient incident scene will be established and communities will have more adequate protection from fire and fire-related hazards.
If selected for a SAFER award, grantees will be required to adhere to several terms and conditions of the award.
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The Program Guidance states that $190 million was appropriated for the SAFER grant. Why do I see $180.5 million listed in other places?
While $190 million was the amount appropriated by Congress for the SAFER grant, the Congress also allows that up to 5 percent of that can be used for administrative purposes. Thus, after administrative costs have been factored out, approximately $180.5 million remains for grant disbursement.
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What kinds of activities are eligible for funding in SAFER?
1. Hiring of Firefighters Activity. The goal of the Hiring of Firefighters Activity is to award grants directly to volunteer, combination, and career fire departments to help them increase the number of frontline, active firefighters with a goal of ultimately assuring the department has adequate personnel to respond to and safely perform at an incident scene, thus providing the community protection from fire and fire-related hazards. This activity provides 5-year grants to assist fire departments in paying a portion of the salaries of newly hired firefighters. These newly hired positions must be in addition to currently authorized and/or funded active firefighter positions. Grantees are required to match an increasing proportion of the salary awarded over a 4-year period; in the fifth year of the grant, the grantee must absorb the entire cost of any positions awarded as a result of the grant.
The Federal share of salaries and associated benefits is limited to a total of $108,380 per position over the course of the performance period. There is no funding limit for any application or any limit to the number of positions eligible for funding per application. However, applicants requesting large numbers of firefighters must make a strong case for their request.
2. Recruitment and Retention of Volunteer Firefighters Activity. The goal of this activity is to create a net increase in the number of trained, certified, and competent firefighters capable of safely responding to emergencies likely to occur within the fire department geographic response area. The primary focus is the recruitment and retention of volunteer firefighters who are involved with or trained in the operations of firefighting and emergency response. Volunteer, paid-on-call, and combination fire departments as well as local and statewide volunteer firefighter interest organizations are eligible to receive grants in this Activity.
While many different types of recruitment and retention activities may be eligible for funding, it is important to link the R&R activity being requested to an identified R&R issue or problem within the applicant’s department. With proper justification, applications for assistance in the Recruitment and Retention of Volunteer Firefighters could include activities that would require as many as four years to complete. There is no local match requirement for this activity and there are no maximum Federal share limits.
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