$4.3M federal grant helped 60 Westmoreland County fire departments recruit, train volunteers

More than 470 new volunteer firefighters were recruited across Westmoreland County over the past four years thanks to a $4.3 million federal grant that came to an end this month.

The 23% increase in recruits drastically surpassed the original goal of 300 new volunteer firefighters laid out in the SAFER grant — Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response — awarded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The grant was administered by Hempfield to 60 of the county’s 83 fire departments.

“It was very well worthwhile,” said Bob Rosatti, fire chief at the Forbes Road Volunteer Fire Department. “It’s not the key to solving the volunteer shortage that we’re having in the fire service throughout the country, but it did help Westmoreland County in recruiting volunteers and bringing those volunteers to a higher level of training.”

The SAFER grant is administered with the goal of providing funding to fire departments and volunteer firefighter interest organizations to help increase or maintain the number of trained firefighters. The grant provides stations and their members funding through a variety of means, from tuition reimbursement to stipends.

Hempfield, which contracted with Adapt Management in 2019 to handle the disbursement of the money, has been in charge of the grant since it was awarded in 2017.

In all, more than $1.4 million went to stipends, which paid active volunteers for responding to calls at all hours of the day; almost $854,850 was used for tuition reimbursement for firefighters and their families; around $366,170 paid for personal protective equipment; more than $116,000 was used for physicals and almost $99,650 paid for training.

According to James Shaw, Hempfield’s director of code and safety, money was also used to run a media campaign aimed at bolstering new recruits. Experts from around the country were brought in to provide training on how to recruit and retain volunteers, and volunteers were provided with accidental death and dismemberment insurance.

“Hempfield Township supervisors were proud to host the grant for the fire companies within Westmoreland County and we are even more proud of the benefits we (were) able to provide to our firefighters through the grant,” Shaw said.

According to Rosatti, there are now 2,518 volunteer firefighters in Westmoreland County. Of that, Forbes Road received 11 new recruits related to the SAFER grant. The Greensburg Fire Department also received several new recruits related to the grant, said Lou Battistella, assistant chief with the department.

“We did have a good recruitment,” Battistella said. “There was more than 25 that actually joined up. … We did get a good cross section of 18-year-olds and we got some older people.”

Battistella noted that the stipends were one of the most successful part of the grant.

Stipends, which totaled $5 per call, were given to firefighters who responded to 15% of calls at their station. The maximum amount a firefighter could receive was $550.

Officials are now focusing on a possible second SAFER grant to benefit county fire departments.

According to Battistella, around 40 fire departments across the county expressed interest in participating in a second grant. Officials submitted an application with FEMA, and will likely hear back around October. If awarded, Greensburg will act as administrators to the grant, which would cover costs of training, stipends and college tuition.

Hempfield also applied for its own SAFER grant, which would benefit the township’s fire department.

Of the original grant, Rosatti said, “I personally feel it was a huge success for Westmoreland County.”