A November 2011 report released by NFPA's Metropolitan Fire Chiefs section highlights the increased risks posed by budget cuts on metropolitan fire departments. The report is presented following the Urban Fire Forum hosted by NFPA each year. The report entitled Fire Service Deployment: Assessing Community Vulnerability and is available for free download from the NFPA website. A cpy is also atached below for download. The report provides an excellent summation of arguments, reports, and other resources for a fire department facing potential budget cuts.  Although it provides insights into potential unintended consequences of budget cuts to large metropolitan departments it has equally valuable points for other urban and rural departments potentially facing cuts. The report and resources are well worth investigating. The concern raised is that many of these cuts may be performed before the full understanding of their impacts may be known. It also highlights the importance of striving to achieve the response objectives in the NFPA 1710 and other NFPA consensus standards.

For more presentations and resources The Metropolitan Fire Chiefs section has posted the presentations made at their 2011 meeting and the 2011 Urban Fire Forum on line at: http://www.nfpa.org/categoryList.asp?categoryID=237&URL=Member%20Access/Join%20Member%20Sections/Metropolitan%20Fire%20Chiefs