FEMA EMS and fire grant opportunity

TIME SENSITIVE:  Closing Date for Applications: Apr 07, 2006

Title:  Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program

Agency Name:  Department of Homeland Security - FEMA

Funding Opportunity Number: AFGFY06 

CFDA Number: 97.044 -- Assistance to Firefighters Grant 

Cost Sharing or Matching Requirement: Yes 

Link to Full Announcement:  http:\\www.firegrantsupport.com

The application will be accessible from the grant program office’s Web site (www.firegrantsupport.com), the U.S. Fire Administration’s (USFA) Web site (www.usfa.fema.gov), and grants.gov Web site (www.grants.gov).

Description:   The purpose of the Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) program is to award one-year grants directly to fire departments and nonaffiliated emergency medical services (EMS) organizations in order to enhance their abilities with respect to fire and fire-related hazards. Our primary goal is to provide assistance to meet fire departments’ and nonaffiliated EMS organizations’ firefighting and emergency response needs. This program seeks to support organizations that lack the tools and resources necessary to more effectively protect the health and safety of the public and their emergency response personnel with respect to fire and all other hazards.

Information on Eligibility:  Eligible applicants for the AFG program are limited to fire departments and nonaffiliated EMS organizations. Fire departments or nonaffiliated EMS organizations that are operating in any of the 50 states plus the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, or Puerto Rico are eligible for funding. A “fire department” is defined as an agency or organization that has a formally recognized arrangement with a state, territory, local, or tribal authority (city, county, parish, fire district, township, town, or other governing body) to provide fire suppression to a population within a fixed geographical area on a first-due basis. A “nonaffiliated EMS organization” is defined as a public or private nonprofit emergency medical services organization that provides direct emergency medical services, including medical transport, to a specific geographic area on a first-due basis but is not affiliated with a hospital and does not serve a geographic area where emergency medical services are adequately provided by a fire department. By “affiliated” we mean receiving any kind of direct support from a hospital in the form of funding, facilities, staff, equipment or apparatus. Contracting with a hospital on a fee-for-service basis would not constitute an “affiliation” in the context of this program. Also, for the purposes of this program, a “hospital” is defined as an organization, clinic, medical center, medical college or university, infirmary, surgery center, or any other institution, association, or foundation that provides medical, surgical, or psychiatric care and treatment for the sick or the injured. Each eligible applicant is limited to one application per program year. We consider two or more separate fire departments or nonaffiliated EMS organizations that share facilities as being one organization. This determination is designed to assist the grants program office in its fiscal oversight of the program by avoiding or eliminating duplication of benefits. For example, it would not be cost-beneficial to purchase two firefighting vehicles for two fire departments that share a facility to serve the same community when so many other communities need new apparatus; nor would it be cost-beneficial to buy two sets of equipment – one rural, one city – for the same firefighters. We believe that two or more organizations that share facilities should be able to satisfy all of their operational needs with one application. If two or more organizations that share facilities submit more than one application, we will deem all of the applications ineligible. Fire departments that are Federal or contracted by the Federal government and are solely responsible under their formally recognized arrangement for suppression of fires on Federal installations or land are not eligible for this grant program. Fire stations that are not independent entities, but are rather part of, controlled by, or are under the day-to-day operational direction of a larger fire department or agency, are not eligible. Fire departments that are for-profit departments (i.e., do not have specific nonprofit status or are not municipally based) are not eligible to apply for assistance under this program. Also not eligible for this program are auxiliaries, fire service organizations or associations, and state/local agencies such as a forest service, fire marshals, hospitals, and training offices. Dive teams and search and rescue teams or any similar organizations that do not provide medical transport are not eligible for EMS assistance as nonaffiliated EMS organizations.

Expected Number of Awards: 5000; Estimated Total Program Funding: $539,550,000;

Award Ceiling: $2,750,000 

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