The Assistance to Firefighters Grant program office is reminding fire departments and non-affiliated emeregncy medical organizations that the FY2006 FIRE grant application period that began March 6, 2005, ends 5:00 p.m. EDT on April 7, 2006. All applications must be submitted by the deadline to be considered for a grant award.

Through the morning of March 27 a total of 1,313 applications had been submitted. This compares to 2,045 submitted to the same point in last year’s (FY2005) application period.

The application period for SAFER grants is scheduled for June of 2006. SAFER grants provide funding for the hiring of firefighting personnel and incentives for volunteer recruitment and retention. A third grant opportunity will be in September 2006 when the AFG program office opens an application period for Fire Prevention and Safety grants. These grants support not only fire departments, but also other organizations experienced in fire prevention and in firefighter safety research.