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Congressman Paul Tonko (D-NY) announced today that Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs will receive a research grant in the amount of $1,434,199 from the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in cooperation with the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA). The award, provided under the Fiscal Year 2013 Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program, is under the direction of Denise Smith, professor of health and exercise sciences at Skidmore.

“Skidmore College is a source of great pride for Saratoga Springs and the entire Capital Region, and securing awards like this from the federal government is a direct reflection of the hard work and dedication put in each and every day by people like Denise and her team on campus,” said the Congressman.“The Skidmore team has been a national leader in documenting the cardiovascular strain associated with firefighting. This research topic is particularly important as approximately 50 percent of firefighter line-of-duty deaths are due to sudden cardiac events. The research done at Skidmore with this support can be employed not just locally to keep our emergency responders safe in the line of duty – but across the entire nation.”

According to Smith,this will be the largest national study investigating the precise medical cause of cardiac deaths in the fire service. “Our study will be a critical step in helping to determine better screening and treatment options to protect our first responders. Working closely with our partners at the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation and Harvard University, we will review medical records of firefighters who lost their lives in the line of duty to determine the precise cause of death and to identify risk factors that may be detected or screened for before a tragedy occurs,” she said.

The primary goal of FEMA’s Assistance to Firefighters Grant program is to meet the firefighting and emergency response needs of fire departments and nonaffiliated emergency medical service organizations. Since 2001, the AFG has provided approximately $5.6 billion in grants to first-responder organizations to obtain much-needed emergency response equipment, personal protective equipment, firefighting and emergency vehicles, research and training. During fiscal year (FY) 2013, the AFG will award another $288.8 million to first-responder organizations that need support to improve their capability to respond to fires and emergencies of all types.

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