Forestry Home > Wildland Fire > Volunteer Fire Assistance Grants
The purpose of the Volunteer Fire Assistance
(VFA) Program, formerly known as the Rural Community
Fire Protection (RCFP) Program, is to provide federal
financial, technical, and other assistance to State
Foresters to organize, train, and equip fire departments
in rural areas and rural communities to prevent
and suppress fires. A rural community is defined
as having 10,000 or less population, or as defined
below. This 10,000-population limit for participation
in the VFA Program facilitates distribution of
available VFA funds to the most needy fire departments.
The funding must be matched on a 50-50 % basis
by nonfederal dollars.
Eligibility Requirements
Eligibility requirements for the use of VFA
funding are as follows:
1. A single fire department serving a rural
area or a rural community with a population of
10,000 or less is eligible (latest Census).
2. Area fire departments (fire districts, townships,
etc.) may serve an aggregate population of greater
than 10,000 as long as the service area of the
fire department includes a rural area or a rural
community having a population of 10,000 or less.
The VFA funding must be used to benefit the rural
population.
3. A single county or town with a population
over 10,000 which is served by two or more fire
districts operating entirely within the bounds
of the county or town may qualify as long as
the service area of a given fire department includes
a rural area or a rural community or the population
of the fire department's jurisdiction is 10,000
or less. The VFA funding must be used for the
rural area.
4. A single community with a population greater
than 10,000 and having a single fire department
with one or more fire stations may qualify. The
fire department must have a service area that
includes a rural area or community that does
not exceed 10,000 population. The VFA funding
must be used only for the benefit of the rural
population. Similarly a single community with
a population greater than 10,000, which also
provide fire protection to an adjoining rural
community of 10,000 or less population by contract,
may also be eligible provided the VFA funding
is used entirely to support the rural community.
5. A single community fire department serving
a population greater than 10,000 and not providing
protection to a rural area or to a rural community
is not eligible for VFA financial assistance.
6. Fire Departments must be NIMS compliant. NIMS compliance information can be found at http://www.fema.gov/emergency/nims/nims_compliance.shtm
Preference will be given to VFA Grant applications for the purchase of wildland and structural personal protective gear, communications equipment, water handling equipment, and training. The purchase of vehicles and high value equipment will not be funded due to the limited amount of funds available.
Purchases made before the date of the VFA application
are not eligible for reimbursement. Proof of
Purchase documents, like invoices, and the Certificate of Expenditure Form (pdf) must be dated after
the date of the VFA application.
Fiscal Year 2008 VFA Federal Funding Applications
are being made available to rural community Volunteer
Fire Departments through the local Department
of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Division
of Forestry, Field Unit Offices.
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