NFPA Journal - Winter 2024 - 61

Facing page,
Engine 50 in the
Charlestown
neighborhood
of Boston. This
page, a nearly $4
million renovation
of the facility
included separating
firefighters' quarters
from apparatus and
gear storage.
for replacing aging fire stations, we estimate that
the cost of adding emission control systems to all
the fire stations without them is between $1.6 billion
and $2.5 billion.
FIRE STATIONS
WITHOUT BACKUP POWER
In 2020, there were an estimated 15,490 fire stations
in the U.S. that were operating without backup
power. This is a crucial need; in an emergency event,
fire stations need access to backup power to ensure
that firefighting activities can continue effectively.
If a fire station loses power, it can be difficult to
answer phones, run computers, supply trucks with
fuel, and open garage doors. Despite this essential
need, a considerable portion of fire stations in the
U.S. do not have emergency generators.
The percentage of fire stations without backup
power has declined since 2001, but the decline has
not been evenly distributed. Communities with
fewer than 5,000 people have not seen a significant
change in the number of fire stations without
backup power since 2015 (from 11,170 to 11,100),
while the number of fire stations without backup
power in communities of more than 100,000 has
decreased over that period, from 1,160 to 810.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA) offers the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program
to assist with the installation of emergency generators
in fire stations. In the model scenario provided
by FEMA in 2015, a generator installation project
costs approximately $50,000 for a fire station serving
up to 27,000 residents. This estimate assumes
that the efficiency of the fire station drops to 50
percent when power is lost and that the useful life
of a generator is 19 years. Based on this information
and adjusting to 2024 values, a fire station generator
installation costs roughly $66,000 to $188,000.
Using the same population factors that were used for
replacing aging fire stations and adding emissions
controls, we estimate that the cost of adding backup
power to all the fire stations without it is between
$1 billion and $2.9 billion.
FIRE STATIONS
WITHOUT PRIVATE OR
SEPARATE FACILITIES
FOR MEN AND WOMEN
In 2020, there were an estimated 25,800 fire stations
in the U.S. without private or separate facilities
for men and women. This is notable considering
that the first paid female firefighter in the U.S. was
employed in 1973, and that the number of female
firefighters increases each year. NFPA's 2020 U.S. fire
department profile estimated that approximately
5 percent of career firefighters and 11 percent of
volunteer firefighters were female, for a total of 8.6
percent. The highest percentage of female firefighters
was in volunteer departments in communities
with populations of 500,000 or more, where women
made up 17.6 percent of the firefighting force.
If we consider that 44 percent of all fire stations
in the U.S. are at least 40 years old, that means that
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NFPA Journal - Winter 2024

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