WASHINGTON -- FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell announced today the opening of the latest application period for the Fiscal Year 2023 Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) program, which will award $324 million to enhance the safety of the public and firefighters nationwide against fire-related deaths and hazards.
During 2023, there were nearly 2,300 home fire fatalities in the United States, including 85 firefighters. To help keep communities and firefighters safer, FEMA is announcing new funding for critically needed resources to better equip and train emergency response personnel, enhance operational efficiencies, foster communications interoperability between emergency responders and support community risk reduction and resilience. In addition, these grants will provide direct financial assistance to eligible fire departments, nonaffiliated emergency medical service organizations and state fire training academies. The application period will close on Friday, March 8, 2024, at 5 p.m. ET.
“As a former firefighter, I know the hazards and risks communities, fire departments and firefighters face, especially those that are under-resourced,” Administrator Criswell said. “The Assistance to Firefighters Grant program continues to have a meaningful impact on our nation’s first responders and the communities that they serve, and this new round of funding can be crucial to a local fire department’s ability to acquire needed protective gear, equipment, training, or other assets to effectively protect lives and property. I encourage more communities across the nation to seize this opportunity to better protect the public and the first responders who serve them.”
“As a previous AFG grant awardee, I know the impact these dollars can make at the national, state, local, tribal and territorial level,” noted Dr. Lori Moore-Merrell, U.S. Fire Administrator.
Over the years, AFG funds have had a big impact in communities around the nation, including supporting firefighters from Gloucester City, New Jersey, who saved a 14-year-old boy from drowning after he fell off a train trestle into swift water -- thanks to Swiftwater Rescue Training and equipment paid for by an AFG grant.
In Topeka, Kansas, a thermal imaging camera purchased with an AFG grant prevented two firefighters from falling through a compromised staircase while fighting a housefire. The Portland (Maine) Fire Department was able to send 50 of its members to the hospital for screening as part of an ongoing firefighter lung cancer study. A serious lung abnormality was found in one of the firefighters, fortunately, it was in an early stage and treatable. Without that early detection, it would have become untreatable and possibly fatal. These examples represent the impact these funds can have on communities and FEMA encourages more communities to apply.
Since fiscal year 2001, the AFG has awarded approximately $8.4 billion in grants to provide critically needed resources to help keep firefighters and the public safe from fires and fire-related hazards. Although the available funding for FY 2023 AFG is $324 million, the total amount appropriated under the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2023, Pub. L. No. 117 - 328 is $360 million. However, to meet the statutory requirements of the Federal Fire Prevention and Control Act, $36 million (10%) of these “available grant funds” will be awarded later this year under the FY 2023 Fire Prevention and Safety program.
This year’s AFG Notice of Funding Opportunity was released on Jan. 22, 2024. The funding notice and technical assistance documents for this program are available at www.grants.gov and on the FEMA website. Additional information about upcoming webinars to assist applicants is also available on the FEMA website.