The Alabama Firefighters Association (AFA) is in the process of drafting a bill that would make it a requirement for every fire department in Alabama to register each year and set minimum requirements for incident reporting as established by and reported to the Alabama State Fire Marshal’s Office.

 Last year AFA received a grant which included completing a study of Alabama fire departments, after the study was completed it was noticed that much of the data was already outdated as some departments closed, moved, changed names or change Chiefs with no method to keep this information current the fire service in Alabama loses.

 Why is this important? Money, I feel very few departments have all the facilities, apparatus, hose and other equipment not to mention manpower that is needed to allow the department, the ability to function at the expectation level of the department’s members and the citizens served. The number of fire departments in a small geographical area, county and state along with the type of fire department;

• Paid

• Part paid/ combination

• Pay per call

• Volunteer

Are question that people in control of providing grants and other avenues of giving out money ask. And the larger amount of funds the more detailed the questions become, that is the reason behind minimum requirement for incident reporting, the Alabama fire service need to be able to accurately report to these individuals the answers to their questions such as, how many fires or even more defined how many structure, forestry or vehicle fire occurred in a specific time period.

 Lets look at law enforcement, these type agencies get a sizable amount more funding than the fire service in Alabama and a large portion is due to proper documentation, law enforcement does a better job of justifying needs by using the data that is collected on each incident they are involved.

 The draft of this bill will be posted as soon as it is completed.