Kennewick Professional Firefighters announced on their Facebook page that the Kennewick Fire Department is one of the recipients of the SAFER Grant through FEMA. "What is the SAFER grant?" The Facebook page asked rhetorically, then explaining: "The Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response Grants (SAFER) was created to provide funding directly to fire departments and volunteer firefighter interest organizations to help them increase or maintain the number of trained, "front line" firefighters available in their communities. The goal of SAFER is to enhance the local fire departments' abilities to comply with staffing, response and operational standards established by the NFPA (NFPA 1710 and/or NFPA 1720)." KFD says this means they were awarded $2.3 million to hire an additional 12 front line firefighters... along with the six currently in recruit academy.