3 man with safer fund

[helpwithsafer]

I have a question about the safer fund.

My dept accepted the safer fund and for a time we were 4 man on every one of our rigs. Since that time we have steadily gone from the 4 man per rig to most rigs having 3 man.

I think i saw in NFPA 1710 that you had to have a 4 man rig if you have the safer grants. If that is true who would I contact to make the city follow the safer grants rules. I see this as our city once again taking money from the govt and endangering our lives by not hiring the firefighters needed to have 4 man rigs.

The dept is a medium size fully paid dept with 340 fire personnel. we have 13 stations with 9 stations being combo with a engine/med unit and 4 stations with a ladder,engine and a med unit combo with one or the other.

[jtucker1384]

I have a question about the safer fund.

My dept accepted the safer fund and for a time we were 4 man on every one of our rigs. Since that time we have steadily gone from the 4 man per rig to most rigs having 3 man.

I think i saw in NFPA 1710 that you had to have a 4 man rig if you have the safer grants. If that is true who would I contact to make the city follow the safer grants rules. I see this as our city once again taking money from the govt and endangering our lives by not hiring the firefighters needed to have 4 man rigs.

The dept is a medium size fully paid dept with 340 fire personnel. we have 13 stations with 9 stations being combo with a engine/med unit and 4 stations with a ladder,engine and a med unit combo with one or the other.

I do believe with safer they just have to keep manning the same as it was when they got safer. So say they got safer for 15 they only have to keep at least 15, gov pays 2 years dept pays 2 years and then they can do whatever they want layoff, Fire, etc.

[onebugle]

What was the SAFER grant for; rehiring laid off (or lost by attrition) FF's or a hiring grant to increase staffing levels to meet 1710 & 4 per apparatus?

[aromania]

The exact rules will depend on the year your department received the SAFER Grant. The rules basically state that agencies receiving SAFER funding their staffing levels must be maintained at or above the levels at the time of the application during the performance period for a period of 6 months or more.

However, once your department has reach the point where they are 100% financially responsible for the firefighters hired with SAFER funds they are no longer responsible to those rules.

There is no mention of the SAFER Grant in NFPA 1710 or 1720. However the SAFER grant does state that applicants whose project will help them comply with these standards are given funding priorities.


2010 however was a VERY different year for SAFER, and the priority was given to reducing/preventing layoffs and filling positions vacated through attrition (which hiring freezes have preventing filling). 2010 provided 2 years of 100% funding instead of the 4 year reducing funding of previous years. I believe that all years of SAFER require one year of retention beyond the final year of SAFER Grant funding.

[helpwithsafer]

we got our funding in 2010 it was for the return of FF who got laid off the previous year. They hired back 37 FF. I thought i saw that you had to follow the 4 man per rig in NFPA 1710.

Do you have any suggestions on how I should find out if we got our grant because the city said we were going to follow the NFPA 1710 rules?