By Janelle Foskett, FireRescue magazine

FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate addressed an attentive crowd during FRI’s general session Friday, offering some key messages to the fire service.

First, he addressed the need for the fire service to work FEMA to help ensure the country’s continued safety in the face of all types of disasters. “FEMA is not the team; FEMA is part of the team. You are the team,” he emphasized. He added that the public needs to be part of this team as well, calling them an “untapped resource”—not a liability.

Fugate discussed the need to reduce the number of apparatus crashes. “So many LODDs don’t occur on the fireground,” he said. “We can’t accept this as part of the job.”

Emphasizing the need to continuously prepare for major incidents, Fugate said, “Disasters don’t stop coming just because our budgets aren’t healthy. We still have to roll.” And on this topic, he stressed the importance of mutual aid. “We need effective and strong mutual aid—not just neighbor to neighbor or region to region, but state to state.”

Additionally, Fugate commented that when he first took the job as FEMA administrator, he received congratulations—and condolences, based on FEMA’s troubled past. “But I was sure I wanted the job,” he emphasized. He added that now, “I want to put the ‘fire’ back in U.S. Fire Administration.”

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