WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Lois Capps announced today a one-year, $64,537 federal grant for the Grover Beach Fire Department through the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program.  This grant program is administered by the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Grants and Training in cooperation with the United States Fire Administration.

Congresswoman Capps has been a long time supporter of the Department of Homeland Security’s Assistance to Firefighters Grants programs.  This grant program is an important part of the federal government’s coordinated effort to improve the nation’s level of preparedness and ability to respond to fire and fire related hazards.  This program has been providing funding to fire departments and other first responders since 2001.  These grants can be used for a variety of purposes, including the purchase of equipment, firefighter health and safety programs, enhancing emergency medical services programs, and conducting fire education and prevention programs.

“I am pleased to announce this important public safety funding for the Grover Beach Fire Department,” said Capps.  “Our communities are fortunate to be served by dedicated professional firefighters who work hard every day to protect residents, businesses, and our natural resources from the threat of fire and other public safety risks.  This grant will support a new fire station alerting system that will notify personnel of an emergency.  This new system will ensure immediate notification, enhancing response time and improving firefighter safety.  I’m proud to support the federal government’s efforts to provide fire departments on the Central Coast and across the country with the resources to do their jobs in a safe and effective manner.”

“The Grover Beach Fire Department will be receiving an Assistance to Firefighter’s Grant in order to fund a fire station alerting system,” said Michael Hubert, Fire Chief, cities of Arroyo Grande and Grover Beach.  “The system will include a dispatch interface and base station radios in order to alert personnel to an emergency, insure notification, reduce response time, and enhance firefighter safety by reducing long-term stress from immediate high decibel alerting systems. This “alerting” stress has been attributed to heart attacks, the leading cause of firefighter fatalities.  The department is excited about the receipt of this grant and look forward to the ability to improve firefighter safety and improve our service to the community by continuing to protect the quality of life of our residents.”

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Pictured above: (center) Congresswoman Capps meets with Central Coast firefighters to discuss emergency preparedness.