[Archived] City of Alexandria Receives $2.3 Million in FEMA Funding for Fire Department Training, Personnel

For Immediate Release: September 6, 2018

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has recently awarded the City of Alexandria more than $2.3 million in funding through its Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) and Staffing for Adequate Fire & Emergency Response (SAFER) grant programs.

“The Alexandria Fire Department accepts the AFG and SAFER grants with profound gratitude,” said Fire Chief Robert Dubé. “Our goal is to make sure we’re always training and improving our service and keeping our personnel safe when they’re on the job.”

The AFG funding of $858,390 will fund paramedic training for firefighters -- further implementing the Fire Department’s plan to move from single-role medics to dual-role firefighter/medics and will support technical rescue training and train-the-trainer courses.

The SAFER grant, which provides $1.5 million over three years, will allow the Fire Department to hire nine additional full-time Firefighter/Emergency Medical Technicians (Firefighter-EMTs). They will be assigned to the department’s ladder trucks, which will provide four-person staffing on those apparatus. The SAFER grant pays for 75 percent of these positions in the first and second years and 35 percent in the third year.  

According to FEMA, the primary goal of AFG is to enhance the safety of the public and firefighters. Since 2001, these grants have helped firefighters and other first responders obtain critically needed equipment, vehicles, training and other resources necessary for protecting the public and emergency personnel from fire-related hazards. The SAFER grants were created to provide funding to help increase or maintain the number of trained, front-line firefighters available in their communities.

For media inquiries, contact Andrea Blackford, Senior Communications Officer, at andrea.blackford@alexandriava.gov or 703.746.3959.