NFPA Wins FEMA Grant for Alternative Fuels Safety Program
NFPA HAS RECEIVED A $747,000 FEMA Assistance to Firefighters – Fire Prevention and Safety Grant to enhance its Electric Vehicle (EV) Safety Training Program.
The grant money will allow NFPA to develop curriculum to train firefighters on how to respond to emergencies involving vehicles that run on gaseous fuels, such as compressed natural gas, liquid natural gas, hydrogen, and liquefied petroleum gas and their refueling stations.
NFPA has trained about 38,000 firefighters in responding to electric and hybrid vehicle accidents and emergencies since the Electric Vehicle Safety Training program launched in 2011.
The addition of gaseous fuel vehicles to the curriculum “rounds out” the program, so that it now covers all mainstream alternative fuel sources, said Andrew Klock, senior project manager for training development. To reflect the more comprehensive focus, the training program will be renamed the “NFPA Alternative Fuels Vehicle Safety Training Program,” Klock said.
In addition to expanding curriculum, the FEMA grant money will help NFPA enhance online course animations and simulations and update the emergency field guide first responders use for reference at the scene of an accident. Also, the courses and a digital version of the field guide will be offered for free to U.S. fire service members. Previously, the course cost $19 and the guide cost $50.
The existing course is available for free at evsafetytraining.org. The updated course that includes the gaseous fuel sources curriculum will be available sometime in the third quarter of 2015, Klock said.