# Federal Firefighters Workforce Support Act

This bill requires the Department of Defense to make sure firefighters at military bases follow strict national safety standards for fire protection. Right now, different military installations might have different staffing levels for their fire departments, and this bill says that needs to change. It establishes specific minimum numbers of firefighters that must respond to emergencies on military bases, no matter what.

Here's what the bill actually requires: when a fire truck responds to a building fire at a military installation, it must have at least four firefighters on board. For aircraft or airfield emergencies, the minimum is three firefighters per vehicle. These numbers come from national standards developed by the National Fire Protection Association, which is the organization that sets fire safety guidelines across the country. The bill makes clear that these staffing levels aren't optional—they're mandatory, even if a military base claims it doesn't have the budget to meet them.

The practical impact is that military bases would need to hire and maintain enough firefighters to meet these minimums at all times. This matters because firefighters say that having the right number of people on a truck makes the difference between a successful rescue and a tragedy. The bill essentially says that protecting people on military installations is important enough that budget cuts can't be used as an excuse to reduce fire department staffing. For military families and employees living on bases, this means they'd have better emergency response coverage if a fire breaks out.

Federal Firefighters Workforce Support Act

Scanlon, Mary Gay

Federal Firefighters Workforce Support Act This bill requires the Department of Defense (DOD) to ensure that members of the Armed Forces and employees of defense agencies who provide fire protection services to military installations comply with the National Consensus Standards developed by the National Fire Protection Association. DOD must also ensure the minimum staffing requirement for any firefighting vehicle responding to a structural building emergency at a military installation is not less than four firefighters per vehicle and the minimum requirement for such vehicle responding to an aircraft or airfield incident is not less than three firefighters per vehicle.