Jacksonville Firefighters awarded $14 million to hire 60 people

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Jacksonville’s Fire and Rescue Department was awarded $14,240,160 million from the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) Grant in order to subsidize 60 positions with JFRD.

Last year, JFRD was awarded $5.5 million from the SAFER Grant.

The grant was created to provide funding directly to fire departments and volunteer firefighter interest organizations to help them increase or maintain the number of trained firefighters in their communities. The grant is given to fire departments across the country.

The City of Jacksonville received the second largest grant in 2020, following the City of New Orleans who was awarded $15.9 million.

Mayor Lenny Curry and Congressman John Rutherford presented the award to Fire Station 18 Tuesday afternoon.