Editor's Note: A new report is calling for Congress to scrap fire service funding such as AFG and SAFER. What's your take on what the 'Center for Data Analysis' is saying? Use your FR1 login to have your say in the member comment section at the end of the article.
By Jamie Thompson
FireRescue1 Editor
WASHINGTON — A new report is calling for AFG and SAFER funding to be eliminated.
The study by the Center for Data Analysis claims the grants have failed to better protect firefighters and civilians, and urges Congress to scrap the programs.
The findings, released in a memo by the Heritage Foundation, have been criticized by fire service figures.
Blogging on The Kitchen Table, FireRescue1 columnist Mike McEvoy said any firefighter or fire chief knows full well that fire grants improve the fire service.
"How we measure that is now under attack," he said. "It's time for quick response from fire service experts. Otherwise, data analysts and statisticians are very likely to kill one of the most valuable resources the American fire service has ever had."
'No impact'
The Heritage Foundation said that the forthcoming CDA study finds that fire grants, including grants that subsidize the salaries of firefighters, had no impact on fire casualties.
It released the memo the day before the Homeland Security Appropriations bill (HR 2892) for fiscal 2010 was passed by the House of Representatives on Wednesday, setting AFG funding at $380 million and SAFER at $420.
Billy Goldfeder, writing in FirefighterCloseCalls' The SecretList, said it is clear that AFG and SAFER program funding has lead to safer firefighting and citizens being better served.
"We don't need any funding or months of WTF research to prove it," he said. "Simply put, if SAFER funding can provide additional firefighters on a first alarm assignment, we are absolutely able to get water on the fire and save the stuff or the people inside that much quicker.
"It is a fact and can be proven and is proven daily."
The CDA describes itself as "specializing in estimating the economic effects of policy changes through an integrated set of econometric models."
'Come together'
FireRescue1 Getting Grants columnist Jerry Brant said for years he has been preaching that the fire service needs to come together and take a more proactive stance in highlighting what it does on a regular basis.
"We can't just be constantly reacting when someone comes along and tries to eliminate our programs," he said.
"We need to recognize opportunities that present themselves and take advantage of these situations to constantly publicize the work of the fire service."
Brant said the new study seems to be directly opposed to the findings of a 2006 report completed for the University of Pittsburgh/GSPIA, which offered a contrasting view.
Results of a survey of fire departments in western Pennsylvania that received AFG funding included:
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