The majority of U.S. fire departments admit they can\’t handle challenging incidents with local resources.

The NFPA\’s Third Needs Assessment of the U.S. Fire Service also shows: \”fire service needs are extensive across the board, and in nearly every area of need, the smaller the community protected, the greater the need.\”

\”There has been little change in the ability of departments, using only local resources, to handle certain types of unusually challenging incidents, including two types of homeland security scenarios (structural collapse and chem/bio agent attack) and two types of largescale emergency responses (a wildland/urban interface fire and a developing major flood),\” researchers concluded.

The report card compares the needs\’ assessment results of 2001 and 2005.

Some needs areas have shown declines such as in personal protective and firefighting equipment — two types of resource that received the largest shares of funding from the Assistance to Firefighters grants, according to the report.

\”Some innovative technologies that have not been identified as necessary in existing standards but are known to be very useful to today\’s fire service — including Internet access and thermal imaging cameras — have also seen large increases in use,\” they said.