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HISTORY or '1 HI COMMITTE1 ON SCIENC.I AND TECHNOLOGY 



Lloyd said that the old days of volunteer firemen leaping out of 

 stores and homes to run to fight fires was "not very practical in the 

 world today." Instead of that, he advocated: 



We have to prevent the source of fire. And the way to prevent the source of fire 

 is that we train people to see where fires are most likely to start, and we do that by- 

 education. 



The site for the proposed Fire Academy caused some controversy 

 and alteration of plans. The administration finally selected a site at the 

 former St. Joseph's College in Emmitsburg, Md. On September 21, 

 1978, the House approved a compromise with the Senate which raised 

 the total authorization to just under $30 million and placed more 

 emphasis on arson losses, particularly arson for profit, through assist- 

 ance to State and local governments. In 1978, the committee also 

 directed that the U.S. Fire Administration prepare a report on arson 

 prevention and control. 



At the close of 1978, the subcommittee had exerted leadership in 

 focusing greater Federal attention on a costly problem which annually 

 resulted in the loss of 7,500 lives and billions of dollars in property. 

 The committee was impatient with the slow progress of Federal au- 

 thorities charged with the responsibility for education in fire pre- 

 vention. The problems were identified, but the Congress was far from 

 satisfied with the snail's pace efforts to solve them. 



AUTHORIZATION FOR FIRE PREVENTION IN 1979 



In 1979, the U.S. Fire Administration was merged into the new 

 Federal Emergency Management Agency. In opening hearings on 

 April 27, 1979, to authorize funds for fire prevention, Brown commented : 



It is indeed disturbing that the United States leads other industrialized nations 

 in fire deaths per capita. Other nations, such as Netherlands and Italy, experience 

 only one-quarter of the number of deaths per capita experienced by the United States. 



In light of these facts, there was some informal discussion within 

 the subcommittee as to whether huge additional amounts of Federal 

 funds would produce a massive program to reduce fire losses. The 

 subcommittee decided, with one exception, to go along with the budg- 

 eted requests because of the problems associated with the establish- 

 ment of FEMA. The exception was in the area of antiarson efforts. 

 As a result of the report requested in 1978, which made several recom- 

 mendations on methods of attacking the arson problem, the committee 

 took the initiative in 1979 to include $5.4 million to fight arson. The 

 committee noted the results of vigorous coordinated community action 

 in Seattle, Wash. , where arson losses had been reduced by 50 percent over 

 a two-year span through activities of an arson task force including 



