The Department of Homeland Security‘s Assistance to Firefighters Fire Station Construction Grants (FSC) will provide financial assistance directly to fire departments on a competitive basis to build new or modify existing fire stations for departments to enhance their response capability and protect the community they serve from fire and fire-related hazards. The authority for FSC is derived from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). Congress appropriated a total of $210 million for this Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 program.
DHS consulted with the nine major fire service organizations to obtain insight and expertise providing funding priority recommendations. Our primary goal is to help fire departments meet their firefighting and emergency response needs. FSC seeks to support organizations lacking the tools and resources necessary to effectively protect the health and safety of the public and their emergency response personnel with respect to fire and all other hazards. The program will be administered by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Grant Programs Directorate in coordination with the U.S. Fire Administration by the Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) Program Office.
The AFG Program Office will be utilizing the established grant process employed for all other grant opportunities with AFG. Applications will be submitted via the automated e-grant application and the program office expects the e-application will be available the week of June 8th. The submitted applications will be screened using the answers to the questions in the application to determine which applications will go to panel. Finally, a panel of peers will review each application sent to panel and provide recommendations regarding which applications will be funded.
During the application period, the help desk will operate Monday to Friday, from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Saturdays (Eastern Time). However, the help desk will close at 4:30 p.m., on Friday, July 3rd and will not be open on Saturday, July 4th. Applicants who have questions regarding the Fire Station Construction Grants opportunity should contact the help desk at 1-866-274-0960 or at firegrants@dhs.gov.
An applicant tutorial will be made available soon on the firegrantsupport.com Web site. The tutorial provides you with valuable grant information and walks you through the preparation and submittal of competitive applications. In addition, the applicant tutorial provides an overview of the funding priorities and evaluation criteria.
To review the FSC Grant Program Guidance click here (PDF).
