Assistance to Firefighters Grant

Appealing for Thermal Imagers

The Assistance for Firefighters Grant Program, administered by the Department of Homeland Security, assists rural, urban and suburban fire departments throughout the United States with funds to help increase the effectiveness of firefighting operations, improve firefighter health and safety programs, purchase new fire apparatus, implement emergency medical service programs, and fund fire prevention and safety programs. America’s 32,000 paid, volunteer and combination departments are eligible, including those departments that have received FIRE Act/FEMA grants in the past.

Karl Lusk of New Haven, Kentucky, is a fourth generation firefighter who has 12 years of grant writing and reviewing experience. In 2003, Karl wrote a successful Assistance to Firefighters Grant application for Rolling Fork (Kentucky) Volunteer Fire Department to make an apparatus purchase. In 2004, he wrote a successful grant for FIRE Act/FEMA funding to support the purchase of a Bullard Thermal Imager, SCBAs, and portable radios for the New Haven Volunteer Fire Department. This article incorporates Karl’s tips for making a successful appeal for your department’s Assistance to Firefighters Grant, as well as including excerpts from his 2004 grant narrative.

Departments should take advantage of many resources to put together the best possible Assistance to Firefighters grant application. Bullard assistance is not intended to be the only resource used by departments applying for money to purchase thermal imagers. Program guidance and the list of free workshops for the 2005 Assistance to Firefighters Grant program can be found at www.firegrantsupport.com You can also call the toll-free assistance hotline at USFA for information: 866-274-0960

(For the full 2004 New Haven Volunteer Fire Department narrative, click here)

Step 1: Select a Grant Writer

Only 30 to 40 percent of applicants will receive FIRE Act/FEMA funding, so it is critical that your application is a well thought-out, quality document. If your department does not have a designated grant writer, first consider the resources within your department. Look for someone, such as a captain or training officer, who has good communication skills and a good track record for managing details. Next, consider your volunteer firefighters and auxiliary members. What types of educations and professional backgrounds do they have? Perhaps someone affiliated with your department is the perfect candidate and is willing to learn the ropes.

Karl Lusk is an example of a local person who has done great things for fire departments in his area, using his research and writing skills to successfully write two FIRE Act/FEMA grants. Karl serves as pastor of St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Campbellsville, Kentucky, is a firefighter for the New Haven Volunteer Fire Department, and is Chaplain for Campbellsville/Taylor County Rescue. Through his experience with a number of non profit organizations during his career, and his tight connection to fire departments in the area, he took on the task of writing FIRE Act/FEMA grants two years ago. “Everyone on this department does something,” Karl said. “My contribution was to write these two grants. I don’t look at it as being over and above. It is my role.”

If you don’t have an in-house person to write your grant, check with other local not-for-profits, such as the parks departments or a youth organization. They often use grant writers to secure funds for various purposes. If your grant writer is not experienced, consider these same local resources as reviewers or helpers. To help your grant writer be as effective as possible, send him or her to a free grant writing workshop available through the Department of Homeland Security. (Program guidance and the list of free workshops for the 2005 Assistance to Firefighters Grant program can be found at www.firegrantsupport.com. You can also call the toll-free assistance hotline at USFA for information: 866-274-0960)

Step 2: Plan Your Appeal

Assemble a committee of strategic thinkers to help your grant writer understand your department’s needs and to formulate the application. The first step for Karl Lusk was to conduct an internal needs assessment with the help of firefighters. “We talked about equipment that wasn’t working well, things the guys had seen at fire schools, and equipment we think would help us here,” he explained.

“We identified three areas,” he continued. “We had three or four different brands of SCBAs that didn’t meet the new NFPA recommendations. What we were using was old and not standardized across the department. Second were our radios. In a mutual aid situation, our portables were useless. The county was putting in new dispatch equipment, and we needed our equipment to be compatible. Third, we had seen a demonstration on thermal imaging, specifically about how the technology is used in search and rescue. That’s what really caught us. We have a number of calls where people are lost in woods. We also considered the use of thermal imaging in fighting silo fires, providing partnership capability to other area fire departments, and more effectively and safely conducting interior attacks on structure fires.”

When approaching DHS, know the organization’s mission, do your homework and make your appeal based on the organization’s funding priorities. Reading program guidance thoroughly is absolutely key to putting together a successful appeal. DHS workshop trainers advise grant writers to read program guidance at least three times, looking for DHS funding priorities and writing grant application around those priorities.

FIRE Act/FEMA grants are awarded directly to local fire departments that are best able to justify their need for funding. With firefighting equipment (within the Operations and Firefighter Safety category), the top priority is to provide basic firefighting equipment, not owned prior to the grant, to bring departments to the applicable minimum operational level. For those departments replacing obsolete or substandard equipment, the age of the equipment will be factored into the score, with a higher priority given to older equipment. Another program priority is to support departments that lack the tools and resources necessary to protect the health and safety of the public and their firefighting personnel.

NHVFD Grant Excerpt: “Purchase of a thermal imager will permit safer interior attacks on structure fires, make rescue of civilians and firefighters quicker and safer, and provide partnership capability to several fire departments, all of which contribute to lower costs and better service when the big picture is considered.”

If your department is responsible for mutual aid in your area, note how the area will benefit from the addition of thermal imagers to your department. Departments able to share their equipment with other communities through mutual aid will be given extra consideration.

NHVFD Grant Excerpt: “Under mutual aid agreements, we will provide the only thermal imager for three rural departments directly adjacent to our city limits… A thermal imager provides a cost-effective opportunity to enhance basic firefighting and rescue capability for this and partnership departments… Without these items, mutual aid and interoperability are threatened, impacting not only safety but potentially insurance rates of our own and adjacent jurisdictions, through higher ISO classifications.

Step 3: Write Your Narrative

The Department of Homeland Security suggests including four elements in your FIRE Act/FEMA application. Their advice about what to include in the narrative is outlined in the numbered section below, illustrated with excerpts from the 2004 grant written by Karl Lusk for the New Haven Volunteer Fire Department.

(For the full 2004 New Haven Volunteer Fire Department narrative, click here)

Detailed description of your project -- In order to receive a FIRE Act/FEMA grant, your organization will need to show how you can serve your community more effectively if the grant were funded. Include a statement of your problems, the purpose of each item you are requesting, along with a description of what will change as a result of the project. Explain how your department will support the project in the future.

NHVFD Grant Excerpt: “As part of its mission statement, this all-volunteer department is committed to providing its members with adequate and safe PPE and equipment, per mandatory applicable OSHA requirements (29CFR1910.134) and recommended NFPA Standards 1981 and 1982. Objectives to meet that priority include:

1. Replacing obsolete SCBA’s and spare cylinders…

2. Purchasing a thermal imaging device, which will be the only such piece of equipment serving this and four neighboring departments.
3. Providing each officer (eight) with a state-of-the-art portable radio compatible with a new dispatch and county-wide communications system…
All of this equipment will enhance firefighter safety and the offer the ability to better partner with mutual-aid departments.”

2) Explanation of benefit to community – Projects receiving priority will request the least amount of Federal funds for the greatest benefit. Requests should be frugal, but sufficient to achieve goals. The benefits of the items requested should directly correlate to grant program priorities. DHS encourages community partnerships and sharing of resources. Get as specific as you can about how firefighters and the community can benefit from thermal imaging. For example, in his narrative, Karl noted the usefulness of thermal imagers in fighting silo fires, conducting searches in wooded areas, managing RIT responses and doing search and rescue in structure fires.

NHVFD Grant Excerpt: “There are a number of silos and grain bins in these response areas. Experience has proven that a thermal imager is useful in locating fire in these structures. Likewise, these areas are rich in wildlife, bringing many hunters to the region; search and rescue operation in wooded, hilly terrain can benefit from use of a thermal imager… Like all small, volunteer departments, available personnel vary with time of day, etc. A thermal imager will enable us to better locate fire in structures, minimizing the risks to limited personnel. Likewise, a thermal imager would be of significant impact in rescue operations with our 14 and under and 65 and older population trapped in these fires. It could also aid in rescue of a downed firefighter.”

Consider mentioning the impact of thermal imaging on your personnel, both in assisting them in getting their job done more efficiently and in helping them be safer on the job. Karl mentioned both of these factors in his department’s narrative.

NHVFD Grant Excerpt: “Purchase of a thermal imager will permit safer interior attacks on structure fires, make rescue of civilians and firefighters quicker and safer, and provide partnership capability to several fire departments, all of which contribute to lower costs and better service when the big picture is considered.”

(For ideas about ways to justify thermal imagers and other Bullard products, click here.)

3) Demonstration of financial need and 4) Justification for additional funding -- Explain why your department is unable to budget for the expenditure and why you are in need of assistance from DHS. The more you know about local, county and state fiscal trends and issues that constrain the department, the more solid your grant will be. Paint a picture of your local economy. The New Haven FIRE Act/FEMA grant application noted the annual budget constraints, stagnant population, current debt load of the department, and the need to purchase a compliant pumper within the next two years.

NHVFD Grant Excerpt: “Roughly $12,000 average annual operational budget for this department cannot provide enough funds to provide our firefighters with this type of equipment. Our budget is part of general fund expenditures for the small municipality of New Haven. The tax base is derived primarily from residential and small retail/commercial properties. In addition to property tax, an insurance premium tax is in place. All potential tax opportunities and tax rates are in use. The town has limited annexation potential, as the Rolling Fork River is the southern and western edge of city limits; to the north, knobs (large hills) present a geographic barrier. Growth is stagnant.”

In this portion of your grant, you should also address other funding sources for the department.

NHVFD Grant Excerpt: “To provide a portion of the match for this grant, the department has raised $3,000 from a Bluegrass music festival last summer. Because all of our firefighters are employed, it is difficult to work, have family time, train, respond to fire alarms, and also go out and raise funds.”

(For the full 2004 New Haven VFD application, click here.)

Step 4: Write Your Budget

Determine the specific equipment you need to accomplish your project. Include a listing of all the items, parts, training, replacements, upgrades, etc. Consider including accessories for your thermal imager, such as a wireless transmitter, truck mount charger, and command center.

Write down the cost of all the items for which you are requesting funding, so everyone has a clear picture of exactly how the money will be used. Be as accurate as possible. Call distributors to ask them to help you price their items exactly. Get written quotes to ensure requested funds meet purchase requirements. Put together a budget to determine how much money is necessary to fund your project. Note that DHS strongly discourages the use of brand names in your grant narrative.

Step 5: Request a Grant Review

Though he has 12 years of grant writing and reviewing experience, Karl Lusk highly recommends requesting a review of your grant application by an outside party before submitting it to DHS.

“In preparing for writing our FIRE Act grant, the first thing I did was to conduct a needs assessment based on inputs from all fire department members,” Karl said. “After we identified our greatest needs, I constructed a grant with the help of sample narratives on the Bullard website and with the help of a FIRE Act workshop in my area… To anyone writing a FIRE Act grant, I recommend going through a workshop, reading the RFP and looking at other successfully funded programs. Before you submit, have someone in another department or even someone outside your area objectively review your grant. An outsider will look at your narrative differently than someone connected to the department.”

Step 6: Submit Your Grant and Thank Helpers

As with the program in past years, fire departments will submit grants electronically to USFA. Remember to show proper recognition to the people who helped you along the way, including the person who wrote the grant. If you compare the minimal effort involved in thank you note follow-ups with the good will it instills in your grant support personnel, it is a small price to pay, especially when grant money is received.

(For examples of winning thermal imager narratives, click here.)

Program guidance and the list of free workshops for the 2006 Assistance to Firefighters Grant program can be found at www.firegrantsupport.com You can also call the toll-free assistance hotline at USFA for information: 866-274-0960