Reed Announces Grants for Four RI Fire Departments
Friday, September 17, 2010
The Scituate Fire and Rescue Engineering Board (SFREB) will receive $1.56 million in federal funding, U.S. Senator Jack Reed announced yesterday.
The grant will help ensure four local fire departments -- Hope-Jackson, Potterville, Chopmist Hill, and North Scituate -- are sufficiently staffed and equipped to respond to approximately 1,750 fire and emergency service calls they receive each year.
"This federal funding will help local fire departments hire more firefighters and improve their emergency response capabilities,” said Reed. The money is being provided by the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant program. Reed is a member of the Appropriations committee that helped secure SAFER grant funding in the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations bill.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST“It is crucial for our fire departments to attain and maintain 24-hour protection of the public. This funding will help Scituate and the surrounding communities reach that goal," Reed said.
The grant will give long-time volunteers incentive to continue their service and new recruits incentive to start. SFREB currently has just over 100 volunteers, but needs approximately 190 to effectively respond to local fire and emergency calls.
"With this grant we will be able to broaden and streamline our recruiting efforts and enhance service to our citizens,” said Hope-Jackson Fire Chief Donald Campbell.
"Being a volunteer firefighter is an important and demanding job. In the current economic climate, it is difficult to recruit and retain good volunteers to perform this work and this grant will go a long way to increase staffing of Scituate’s fire and rescue companies, plus departments state wide and regionally,” Reed added.
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