Federal Fire Prevention and Control Act of 1974


The Federal Fire Prevention and Control Act of 1974 was created in response to the 1973 National Commission on Fire Prevention and Control report, America Burning. The report's authors estimated fires caused 12,000 deaths, 300,000 serious injuries and $11.4 billion in property damage annually in the United States, asserting that "the richest and most technologically advanced nation in the world leads all the major industrialized countries in per capita deaths and property loss from fire." The report proposed that a federal agency be established to help combat the growing problem of fatal fires happening throughout the country.
The S. 1769 legislation was passed by the 93rd Congressional session and signed into law by U.S. President Gerald Ford on October 29, 1974.

Provisions of the FPCA

The Act of Congress created a national superintendence for the administrative and organizational parameters of local and State government firefighting entities. The Act
established the National Fire Prevention and Control Administration, National Academy for Fire Prevention and Control, National Fire Data Center, and the Fire Research Center.

Fire Research Center

The Fire Research Center within the Department of Commerce was authorized with the mission of performing and supporting research on all aspects of fire with the aim of providing scientific and technical knowledge applicable to the prevention and control of fires, including —
  1. basic and applied fire research for the purpose of arriving at an understanding of the fundamental processes underlying all aspects of fire,
  2. research into the biological, physiological, and psychological factors affecting human victims of fire, and the performance of individual members of fire services, and
  3. operation tests, demonstration projects, and fire investigations in support of the activities set forth in the Act.