In September, the U.S. Fire Administration began awarding additional FY 2003 FIRE Grants made possible by cost savings by 2003 awardees and by the U.S. Fire Administration.

For its part, the USFA used only about half of the funding authorized for administering the program, according to USFA Spokesman Tom Olshanski. Olshanski credited these extra moneys to the leadership of U.S. Fire Administrator R. David Paulison and the grant and procurement staff efforts, “but most importantly to the fire departments of the nation who work to save money from this program, and thereby allow us to distribute additional funds to departments who did not receive them in FY '03.”

See the Assistance to Firefighters Program Web site at www.usfa.fema.gov for new distributions.