North Carolina fire marshal gives disaster response recommendations to FEMA

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — Neary a year after Hurricane Helene left a path of devastation across western North Carolina, the state’s top fire official said the Federal Emergency Management Agency needs to step up before the next disaster hits.

North Carolina State Fire Marshal Brian Taylor, who is also the vice president of the National Association of State Fire Marshals, has some recommendations for the federal agency, which were laid out in a letter for the FEMA Review Council, Disaster Response and Recovery Subcommittee.

“The committee took those for consideration,” Taylor said. “They said that they would reach out if they had any questions from that point forward.”

The suggestions talk about the critical role of firefighters in disasters, stating, “Despite this, the fire service currently has no dedicated voice on the FEMA Review Advisory Council. This is a serious gap.”

Said Taylor, “[FEMA] has not said they would give us a spot on that committee. That committee was assembled by President Trump’s team. We want to just educate them that it’s important we have fire service members on that team because our firefighters are the first response.”

According to Taylor, more than 900 firefighters participated in Hurricane Helene response and recovery.

Among the list of recommendations are having the U.S. Fire Administrator report to the Secretary of Homeland Security to make sure decisions reflect what’s happening on the frontlines of disasters and FEMA streamline the process for approving resources being deployed.

Taylor also wants FEMA to continue its training, planning, some funding, and recovery programs and see it incorporate ways to use private resources without delays.

“It’s important to embrace the public private partnerships,” he said. “The days of that you have to be on the federal model or state model, we can’t do it as efficiently as what private industry and businesses can do it. Embrace that.”

CBS 17 reached out to FEMA to see if the agency is considering any of these changes. We have not received a response.