Fire Management Assistance Grants

Program Overview

Fire Management Assistance is available to states, local and tribal governments, for the mitigation, management, and control of fires on publicly or privately owned forests or grasslands, which threaten such destruction as would constitute a major disaster. The Fire Management Assistance declaration process is initiated when a State submits a request for assistance to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Regional Director at the time a "threat of major disaster" exists. The entire process is accomplished on an expedited basis and a FEMA decision is rendered in a matter of hours.

The Fire Management Assistance Grant (FMAG) Program provides a 75 percent Federal cost share and the State pays the remaining 25 percent for actual costs. Before a grant can be awarded, a State must demonstrate that total eligible costs for the declared fire meet or exceed either the individual fire cost threshold - which is applies to single fires, or the cumulative fire cost threshold, which recognizes numerous smaller fires burning throughout a State.

Eligible firefighting costs may include expenses for field camps; equipment use, repair and replacement; tools, materials and supplies; and mobilization and demobilization activities.

Fire Management Assistance Grant Program Laws and Regulations

• Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Act (Section 420)
• 44 CFR (Part 204)
• Federal Register FMAG Final Rule Notice (Text Version)

Fire Management Assistance Grant Program Guidance / Publications

• FMAG Declaration Request Forms
  • FEMA Form 078-0-2 Principal Advisor's Report (FMAG)
  • FEMA Form 078-0-1 Request for Fire Management Assistance Declaration
  • FEMA Form 089-0-24 Request for Fire Management Assistance Subgrant
• SF-424 Application for Federal Assistance
• 2 CFR Part 200: Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards
• 2014 FMAG Program Guide
• FMAG Program Brochure B-330
• 2021 Fire Cost Thresholds

To order hard copies of FEMA's publications, please contact the FEMA Publications Warehouse (1-800-480-2520).

Office of Management and Budget Circulars

• OMB A-87: Cost Principles for State, Local, and Indian Tribal Governments
• OMB A-133: Audits of States, Local Governments, & Non-Profit Organizations
• Part 13 - Uniform Administrative Requirements for Grants and Cooperative Agreements to State and Local Governments