$600K FEMA Grant to Help Hire 4 Nutley Firefighters

U.S. senators Robert Menendez and Jeff Chiesa announced on Wednesday that the Nutley Fire Department has been awarded  $599,152 grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) program. 

SAFER grants directly funds fire departments and volunteer firefighter organizations to help them increase the number of trained “front line” firefighters in their communities.

“Nothing is more essential to keeping a community as safe as it can be as keeping firefighters on the job,” Senator Menendez said in a press release. “This federal funding will go directly to the Nutley Fire Department to help make sure enough personnel are at the ready to respond to any emergency. This not only helps the Nutley community, but it also helps maintain safer working conditions for our firefighters, who deserve nothing less than our best efforts to help them work as safely and effectively as possible.”

Senator Chiesa, who took over the seat left by departed Nutley native Frank Lautenberg, emphasized the need for properly trained emergency responders.

“This grant funding is critically important to providing firefighters with the operations and training they require,” Senator Chiesa said.

Nutley Deputy Fire Chief Paul Cafone said the SAFER funding will help the department hire four new firefighters at a time when staff levels have dropped from 39 to 30 due to recent retirements.

“We’re always happy to receive this federal funding to help us keep the Nutley community safe,” said Deputy Chief Cafone, who expressed his appreciation to Senators Menendez and Chiesa, as well as Congressman Rodney Frelinghuysen for their roles in obtaining the funding.

Nutley Mayor Alphonse Petracco, who is also Nutley’s Director of Public Safety, said the grants gives municipalities the ability to replace retiring firefighters that have retired at no cost to the tax-payers.

“In these difficult economic times it is hard to add to the payroll but fortunately we were awarded this grant to offset the costs,” Petracco said. “Thank you to our legislative leaders for making this grant available to local communities who are struggling with manpower shortages and the ability to fund additional personnel.”