Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren has fired off a volley of letters to groups representing the Bay State’s municipal leaders and firefighters statewide, urging them to take advantage of a new round of federal funding that she says will provide “essential” resources to train and retain personnel and purchase equipment and supplies.
The $360 million in funding, available through the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s “Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response” grant program are available to both professional and volunteer departments, Warren, D-Mass., wrote in the letters, which were obtained exclusively by MassLive.
The Bay State lawmaker sent the letters to the Massachusetts Municipal Association, the Fire Chiefs Association of Massachusetts, and the Professional Fire Fighters of Massachusetts.
Through a spokesperson, the statewide firefighters’ association declined a request for comment from MassLive.
The SAFER program, as it’s known, has “been essential to shoring up funding shortfalls that dedicated Massachusetts fire departments have needed to ensure sufficient staffing and provide adequate training,” Warren wrote.
The federal grant money is “a key resource to ensure that firefighters—and the cities and towns you serve—are appropriately protected from fire-related dangers,” Warren wrote.
Over the last decade, fire departments statewide have received some $270 million in federal assistance, Warren said.
Departments such as Belchertown, which received about $1.5 million in 2022, have used the money to hire new firefighters.
The Worcester Fire Department, which received $23 million in grant assistance in 2022 and 2023, used the money to hire new firefighters and address the city’s fire suppression needs, Warren’s office said.
Warren’s round of letters comes just about three months after Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, looking to shore up the state’s bottom line, trimmed $1.65 million from an account supporting fire departments statewide, as part of a wider, $375 million reduction in spending this year.
Some three-dozen departments, from from Auburn to Worcester, were expected to see their state funding cut by as much as half, according to a letter the Professional Firefighters of Massachusetts sent out in mid-January, MassLive previously reported.
Applications for the FEMA grant program are due by 5 p.m. on Friday April 12, Warren’s office said.
“I will continue to advocate for a longer-term, sustained stream of federal funding for the SAFER grant program,” Warren, who’s up for re-election this fall, wrote.
“I highly encourage you to make the most of the opportunity provided through FEMA’s new round of SAFER grants, and look forward to working with you to bring this funding home to your community,” she wrote.
