Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

AGENCY:

Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security.

ACTION:

Notice and request for comments.

SUMMARY:

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has submitted the following information collection to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and clearance in accordance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. The submission describes the nature of the information collection, the categories of respondents, the estimated burden (i.e., the time, effort and resources used by respondents to respond) and cost, and includes the actual data collection instruments FEMA will use.

Title: National Fire Department Census.

OMB Number: 1660-0070.

Abstract: Many data products and reports exist that contain fragmented or estimated information about fire department demographics, and capabilities, but there is no single reference source today that aggregates this data to provide a complete and accurate profile of fire departments in the United States. The U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) receives many requests for information related to fire departments, including total number of departments, number of stations per department, population protected, apparatus and equipment status. The USFA is working to identify all fire departments in the United States to develop and populate a national database that will include information related to demographics, capabilities and activities. The database will be used by USFA to guide programmatic decisions, provide the Fire Service and the public with information about fire departments, to produce mailing lists for USFA publications and other materials. In the first year of this effort, information was collected from 16,000 fire departments. Since the first year of the collection, an additional 8,000 departments have registered with the census for a total of 24,000 fire departments. This leaves an estimated 9,000 departments still to respond. Additionally, fire departments already registered with the census will be contacted once every five years to provide updates or changes to their census data so that USFA can keep the database as current as possible. Fire departments are able to complete the census form on-line through the USFA Web site, or by filling out a paper census form and faxing the completed form, or sending it in a return envelope.

Affected Public: Federal, State, local, government, volunteer and industrial fire departments.

Number of Respondents: 9,000.

Estimated Time per Respondent: 25 minutes.

Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 3,750 hours.

Frequency of Response: Once.

Comments: Interested persons are invited to submit written comments on the proposed information collection to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at OMB, Attention: Desk Officer for the Department of Homeland Security/FEMA, Docket Library, Room 10102, 725 17th Street, NW., Washington, DC 20503, or facsimile number (202) 395-7285. Comments must be submitted on or before March 1, 2006.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Requests for additional information or copies of the information collection should be made to Chief, Records Management, FEMA, 500 C Street, SW., Room 316, Washington, DC 20472, facsimile number (202) 646-3347, or e-mail address FEMA-Information-Collections@dhs.gov.