CHICAGO (AP) — The country’s preeminent federal fire training academy cancelled classes on Saturday, effective immediately, citing President Donald Trump’s administration’s ongoing flurry of funding freezes and staffing cuts.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency cancelled National Fire Academy courses as part of a “process of evaluating agency programs and spending to ensure alignment with Administration priorities,” according to a notice sent to instructors, students, and fire departments. Instructors were instructed to cancel any future travel until further notice.
Firefighters, EMS providers, and other first responders from all over the country come to the NFA’s Maryland campus for the federally funded institution’s free training programs.
“The NFA is a powerhouse for the fire service,” said Marc Bashoor, a retired West Virginia fire chief with 44 years of fire safety experience. “It’s not a ‘nice to have.’ It is the only way we have to bring people from all over the country to learn from and with one another. If we want to maintain one of the world’s best fire services, we need the National Fire Academy.”
The academy, which also houses the National Fallen Firefighter’s Memorial, opened in 1973 to combat the rising number of fatal fires across the country. According to a report from the National Commission on Fire Prevention and Control, it was originally intended to be the “West Point of the Fire Service.”
Bashoor stated that the NFA was preparing to welcome a new group of fire safety officers for training next week.
“People had made their airline and travel reservations. “And then they get an email saying, ‘Sorry, it’s been cancelled,'” he explained. “It’s really upsetting.”
Having an essential training institution “shut down under the presumption that there’s waste, fraud, and abuse” has been demoralising for firefighters, including those on the frontlines of deadly fires that ravaged California this year, according to Bashoor.
He said losing NFA training could make the coordinated response that prevented additional deaths and destruction in California more difficult.
FEMA and the National Fire Academy did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
While surveying disaster zones in California in January, Trump stated that he was considering “getting rid of” FEMA entirely, hinting at major changes to the nation’s central disaster response organisation.
Firings at the United States Forest Service in the aftermath of the deadly California wildfires sparked outrage among discharged workers and officials, who said it would mean fewer people and resources available to help prevent and fight fires.
