ALBEMARLE — The Albemarle Fire Department has been awarded a $1.83 million Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to hire, train, and deploy 10 new full-time firefighters.
The SAFER grant was created to provide funding directly to fire departments and volunteer firefighter interest organizations to help them increase or maintain the number of trained front-line firefighters available in their communities.
At the Albemarle City Council meeting on Monday night, councilmembers listened to a presentation from Kenny Kendall Jr., fire chief for the Albemarle Fire Department, who laid out the potential impact of accepting the grant to benefit the city in its present and future capacities.
While no decision on accepting the grant was needed at that time, the Albemarle City Council’s work session scheduled for Nov. 12 will include an opportunity of additional discussion with financial advisors to assess the city’s budget; councilmembers will then be asked to take action on this item at their Nov. 18 meeting.
“What we wanted to do tonight was just introduce you to the SAFER grant award and what that means to the city if it’s accepted by the city council,” Albemarle City Manager Todd Clark said in a preface to Kendall’s presentation. “We are under a timeline. We do have to respond back by Nov. 23 as to whether or not we want to accept the grant or not. But this is an opportunity for the city in consideration with some growth that we’re seeing.”
SAFER aims to enhance local fire departments’ abilities to comply with staffing, response, and operational standards established by the National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA), which specifies the minimum criteria addressing the effectiveness and efficiency of the department’s operations, emergency medical service, and special operations delivery.
“FEMA has awarded 191 departments SAFER grants this year, totaling $360 million,” Kendall said. “The City of Albemarle Fire Department has been awarded a $1.8 million staffing grant by FEMA. City Council has been very supportive of our application previously, and we want to we’re very thankful for that.”
Kendall added that his department’s current 14-firefighter staff falls short of the NFPA’s 16-firefighter minimum standard on a structure fire call.
The SAFER grant would add 10 full-time firefighters, adjusting the department to three personnel per shift, as well as an assistant fire marshal.
“Added staff can improve the fire department’s ISO rating used for insurance purposes,” Kendall said. “ISO ratings are based upon multiple factors, including water systems, communications and call responses and many more. An improved ISO score may lead to a lower insurance premium for homes and businesses. Adding the properly-staffed ladder truck to all fire calls increases our opportunity to improve our ISO rating to a class two.”
The Albemarle Fire Department’s ISO classification improved in 2020 from a class four to a class three, stopping just 5.59 points away from a class two rating.
The Albemarle City Council is set to meet again on Nov. 18 at 6:30 p.m. in the City Hall Council Chambers.