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OCToday, OCFA Fire Chief Brian Fennessy provided testimony to the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Fire Administrator, and other federal leaders on the issue of staffing shortages at federal wildland firefighting agencies and the reliance on OCFA and other local government agencies to subsidize those deficits.
Serving as a Subject Matter Expert at the U.S. Fire Administrator’s “Summit on Fire Prevention and Control” in Emmitsburg, Maryland, Chief Fennessy addressed the countless issues these federal shortages pose, including unstaffed federal stations, the drawdown of local resources to fill those gaps, and the lack of federal reimbursement for municipal and state agencies who continuously do this work in the absence of federal wildland firefighters. We are grateful for the opportunity to speak on this issue and confident the federal leaders in attendance will work towards positive change, including recruiting, retaining, fairly compensating, and fully staffing federal wildland firefighters.
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