U.S. Rep. Bill Delahunt today announced that the Town of Plymouth will receive $627,190 in federal funding to re-hire five firefighters that were lost last July due to budget cuts.  

“In these tough fiscal times, is important that we do all that we can protect public safety and help local budgets,” said Delahunt. “I want to congratulate the Town of Plymouth, the Selectmen and the Fire Department for their strong support for this funding application and for the Firefighters Grants program.”

Chief Edward Bradley of the Plymouth Fire Department said, “The Plymouth Fire Department’s personnel are excited to regain the five firefighter positions that we lost July 1, 2009 due to budget cuts. The loss of these positions in this year’s budget made it difficult for the Department to staff all seven fire stations on a shift by shift basis. This grant will ensure the department has the staffing required to provide adequate fire protection, hazardous materials and emergency medical response to the residents and visitors to Plymouth, and with no cost to the taxpayers.”

Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) are administered by the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency in cooperation with the U.S. Fire Administration. SAFER funds are used to assist local fire departments by increasing their staffing and deployment capabilities in order to respond to emergencies whenever they may occur. As a result of the enhanced staffing, response times should be sufficiently reduced with an appropriate number of personnel assembled at the incident scene.

Delahunt has been a leading advocate of the Fire Grants Reauthorization Act of 2009, which passed the House last November via a 395-31 vote. In addition, he has worked closely with local and regional public safety officials in advocating for the funds necessary to ensure that the citizens of Southeastern Massachusetts and Cape Cod have the most effective emergency response possible.