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Stateside Comment It is crunch time here in the US as Congress, reports US Correspondent Catherine Levin, as it decides whether the US Fire Administration will get its budget renewed at similar levels to previous years
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The initial signs are promising – the snappily titled HR2217 – Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2014 was passed in the House of Representatives on June 6with amendments – and actually proposed increasing the amount that the USFA was funded to $44 million for the federal 2013/14 fiscal year. However, getting through the House of Representatives is just the first stage on the road for this Bill being made into law and there is no date at time of writing for it to be introduced in the Senate. The sequester is still big news here and there is no guarantee anyone will get the budget they expect. When the former Department for Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary, Janet Napolitano, put her written testimony to a Senate Appropriations Committee back in February, she made it clear that ‘sequestration would undermine the significant progress DHS has made over the past ten years to build the nation’s preparedness and resiliency’.
“Imagine in the UK getting access to this kind of cash on an annual basis to develop training, prevention programmes, buy equipment and other fundamentals?” Should this Bill make it into law, the grant programme alone could be funded to the tune of $680 million. Split evenly into the Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) and the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grants, this represents yet another huge injection of cash into fire and rescue services across the US. The former grant has been around since 2001 and the latter since 2005 and provide mostly smaller fire departments with
grants to enhance their ability to protect the public and fire service personnel from fire and related hazards. Imagine in the UK getting access to this kind of cash on an annual basis to develop training, prevention programmes, buy equipment and other fundamentals? Look at the FEMA website to see how to access the grants and you will see a row of hoops to jump through, but the diligent will reap rewards. I spoke to the Director of Grant Programs here in the Fire Department of New York about their experience of federal grant programmes. She told me that since 9/11 they have had over $400 million in grants from the Department for Homeland Security alone. It sounded to me like the investment made in the UK’s New Dimension programmes but on a much larger scale if this much money went to just one fire department in the US. Compare this to the recently announced £30 million resource fund available on a bid-for basis through the local government settlement to encourage joint working between fire and rescue authorities; and the £45
FIRE’s US Correspondent Catherine Levin
million Fire Efficiency Incentive Fund to invest capital in assets to achieve efficient and effective service delivery. Neither to be sniffed at of course, but in percentage terms it’s very small beer, so let’s hope government doesn’t make fire and rescue authorities jump through hoops to access this cash. Maybe some will be lucky and get something from the £9.2 million Transformation Challenge Award which closed for bids in July. Given this is being made available to all local authorities, it won’t go far even if fire and rescue services present a good case. Good luck everyone.
Service ‘devastated’ by loss of Manchester firefighter killed in blaze Tributes have flooded in following the tragic loss of Firefighter Stephen Hunt, killed whilst responding to a major fire on July 14
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reater Manchester Fire and Rescue Chief Fire Officer Steve McGuirk has said his service is “devasted” at the loss of Firefighter Stephen Hunt after he was killed in the line of duty. Firefighter Hunt was among 60 firefighters deployed to tackle a major blaze at a hair salon in Oldham on Sunday July 14. One other was taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
Two members of the shop staff were also taken to hospital after initially attempting to tackle the fire themselves before eight fire appliances arrived on scene. The blaze, which the service said was particularly difficult to tackle because of the complex layout of the building and the amount of materials inside, took over four hours to get under control. After learning that the incident had claimed
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the life of one of his firefighters, CFO McGuirk said: “We never expect to lose a colleague in this way and it brings home the dangers that our firefighters put themselves in every day to keep the community safe. “Stephen had been a dedicated firefighter since 2008 and we are all in a state of shock.” An investigation has been launched to establish the cause
of the blaze with two 15-year-old girls having already been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter. Merseyside and Lancashire fire and rescue services will lead the investigation in collaboration with the police. CFOA President Vij Randeniya added: “We are all devasted by the news. We offer our sincere condolences to Stephen’s family, friends and colleagues at this very sad time.”