Grant funding is one of the most powerful — and most underused — tools available to fire departments looking to modernize their operations. Every year, hundreds of millions of dollars flow through FEMA's Assistance to Firefighters Grant program to departments across the country. Yet many smaller and volunteer departments never apply, either because they assume the program is designed for large metro departments or because the application process feels too complex to tackle with limited administrative staff.

The reality is that AFG was built for departments exactly like yours — departments that need critical resources but can't fund them through municipal budgets alone. And response technology, including tablets, mobile data terminals, station alerting systems, and response software, falls squarely within AFG's eligible equipment categories.

If your department has been putting off technology investments because the budget isn't there, a well-written AFG application could change the timeline entirely.

TL;DR: The AFG program has distributed approximately $8.7 billion to fire departments since 2001, but many smaller departments never apply — or submit weak applications that don't get funded. Technology purchases like tablets, response software, and station alerting are eligible under AFG equipment categories. This guide walks you through the program, how to build a competitive application, and alternative funding sources to explore in parallel.

The volunteer firefighter shortage isn't new, but it's getting worse. The numbers tell a stark story:

• 897,750 volunteer firefighters in the U.S. in 1984 — the first year the NFPA began tracking
• 676,900 volunteer firefighters by 2020 — the lowest number ever recorded, a 25% decline over four decades (NFPA U.S. Fire Department Profile)
• 40% U.S. population growth during that same period, meaning far more people are depending on far fewer volunteers
• Tripled call volume, driven largely by the increase in emergency medical calls (National Volunteer Fire Council Fact Sheet)

The scale of the crisis is hard to overstate. Volunteers comprise 65% of all firefighters in the United States. More than 80% of fire departments are all-volunteer or mostly-volunteer. The time donated by volunteer firefighters saves communities an estimated $46.9 billion per year (NVFC Fact Sheet). When those volunteers disappear, communities don't just lose fire protection — they lose a service that most municipal budgets simply cannot afford to replace with career staff.

Here's a number that should reshape how every fire chief thinks about technology: 64% of all fire department runs in the United States are EMS and rescue calls. Only 4% are actual fires (U.S. Fire Administration, Fire Department Overall Run Profile). For combination departments — the departments most likely to be weighing technology investments right now — the ratio is often even more lopsided.

Spokane County Fire Protection District 8, for example, responds to approximately 4,500 calls annually, with EMS comprising the majority of their responses. They're not unusual. Across the country, the fire service has evolved into a predominantly medical response service that also fights fires.

It has been just over a year since the National Emergency Response Information System (NERIS) began its phased rollout across the United States. In that time, fire departments from coast to coast have navigated one of the most significant operational transitions the fire service has seen in decades — the shift from the legacy National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS), which had served as the foundation for fire incident data collection since 1975, to a modern, cloud-based reporting and analytics platform built for today's all-hazards environment.