The International Association of Fire Chiefs issued an urgent call Thursday for all fire chiefs to immediately contact their U.S. senators to express support for an amendment that would fund the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response Firefighters Act in Fiscal Year 2005.

Senators Christopher Dodd (D-CT) and Arlen Specter (R-PA) are introducing an amendment to the homeland security appropriations bill for FY05 that would fund SAFER at $100 million. “Urgent action is necessary because the Senate will be voting on this amendment – and the full appropriations bill – as early as late this afternoon,” said an IAFC alert.

“We must act now, aggressively, on this one-shot opportunity – the only one that we will have this year,” said IAFC President Bob DiPoli. “Since the events of 9/11, we have been raising the awareness on Capitol Hill and in the administration of the need for significantly increased staffing levels for firefighting and EMS. Now we have the chance to start a program that will provide increased staffing for career, volunteer, and combination departments. We must act today!”

The SAFER Act would provide federal grant money directly to local fire departments, similar to the FIRE Act grants, to hire additional personnel. The program is designed to help both volunteer and career departments, with funds set aside for volunteer recruitment and retention as well as full-time staff.

“Despite the critical services they provide, many professional and volunteer fire departments in the nation – in urban, suburban, and rural areas alike – do not have sufficient personnel to adequately protect the public. The landmark FEMA study entitled ‘A Needs Assessment of the U.S. Fire Service,’ issued in December of 2002, found that fire departments commonly operate with staffing levels that do not meet the minimum safe staffing levels required by OSHA and the National Fire Protection Association. This puts the public – and firefighters – at greater risk of harm,” said the IAFC alert.

See the IAFC Web site for a sample letter to send to your senator, instructions for how to communicate by phone and more details on the SAFER program.