In July, the National Fire Protection Association released state-level breakdowns of its national Fire Service Needs Assessment Survey commissioned by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Fire Administration.

The NFPA's comprehensive survey of fire departments released in 2002 revealed that many departments lacked basic equipment and response capabilities, such as radios and SCBA, and were severely underequipped for challenging terrorism, hazmat and major natural disasters. The report provided convincing data to national policy-makers of the need to increase federal resources for the nation's fire departments.

“The biggest message was the original national study that we released a couple of years ago, which showed all kinds of needs for fire departments in order for them to do the jobs that their communities asked them to do,” said John R. Hall Jr., Ph.D., of the NFPA Fire Analysis and Research Division,” but we know that as former [U.S. House] Speaker Tip O'Neill used to say, ‘All politics is local.’ Many decision-makers and policy-makers have trouble relating to the numbers unless they're brought closer to home.”

The state reports can be downloaded free in PDF format from the NFPA One-Stop Data Shop at www.nfpa.org. For printed copies of your state report, e-mail Nancy Schwartz at osds@nfpa.org or call 617-984-7450.