The RFA “Silent
Death” E-mails — April
2 & 3, 2007
RFA Position Statement
& VFA Position Statement
jointly prepared by National
Volunteer Fire Council,
International Association of
Fire Chiefs, and Congressional
Fire Services Institute
RFA Information
Sheet — March, 2001
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Please
don't let RFA “die a silent death”
— contact your U.S. Senator or Representative today.
National Volunteer Fire
Council
International Association of Fire Chiefs
Congressional Fire Services Institute
VFA Position Statement
The Volunteer Fire Assistance (VFA) grant program provides funding to
volunteer fire departments that protect fewer than 10,000 people so that
they can purchase equipment and training to make them better prepared
to suppress wildland fire. Grant recipients have to provide 50
percent in matching funds.
In FY 2007, VFA was funded at $13.8 million. We support continuing
to fund VFA at the same level in FY 2008.
There are thousands of small volunteer fire departments around the country
that are often the only option for responding to an incipient wildland
fire. Unfortunately, these departments often lack the financial
resources to equip and train their firefighters to levels recommended
by voluntary national consensus standards. For example, 34-37 percent
of these fire departments involved in wildland fire suppression have
some or no personnel with formal wildland fire suppression training.[1]
If local fire departments cannot suppress wildland fires, the fires
spread and state and federal agencies are deployed. This is an
extremely expensive process that last year cost the United States Forest
Service (USFS) more than $1 billion, approximately half of its overall
budget. The costs of wildland fire suppression have been increasing
steadily as commercial and residential development pushes further into
the wildland/urban interface (WUI). Last year, the Department of
Agriculture’s Inspector General[2] recommended that the federal
government limit its role in wildland fire suppression and force state
and local governments, that play a greater role in shaping development,
to shoulder more of a burden.
With suppression costs rising, stakeholders must increase efforts to
prevent wildland fires, respond to wildland fires quickly before they
become unmanageable, and educate communities in the wildland/urban interface
so that they can take precautions to mitigate wildland fires. VFA
is an important piece of this broader solution. Volunteer fire
departments located in rural areas all around the country are best positioned
to put out wildland fires in the early stages, eliminating the need for
state and federal agencies to respond. VFA gives those local fire
departments the tools that they need to have the ability to provide adequate
wildland fire suppression services. Continued funding for VFA
will save taxpayer dollars in the long run by reducing instances in which
state and federal responders will be called upon to put out wildland
fires.
We urge the Committee to provide $13.8 million for VFA in FY 2008.
1 Four Years Later – A Second Needs Assessment of the U.S.
Fire Service:
http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/downloads/pdf/publications/fa-303-508.pdf
2 Inspector General’s report:
http://www.usda.gov/oig/webdocs/08601-44-SF.pdf
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