(a) The following entities are eligible to apply through a State recipient for a subgrant under an approved fire management assistance grant:

(1) State agencies;

(2) Local governments; and

(3) Indian tribal governments.

(b) Entities that are not eligible to apply for a subgrant as identified in (a), such as privately owned entities and volunteer firefighting organizations, may be reimbursed through a contract or compact with an eligible applicant for eligible costs associated with the fire or fire complex.

(c) Eligibility is contingent upon a finding that the Incident Commander or comparable State official requested the applying entity's resources.

(d) The activities performed must be the legal responsibility of the applying entity, required as the result of the declared fire, and located within the designated area.

(a) General. (1) All eligible work and related costs must be associated with the incident period of a declared fire.

(2) Before obligating Federal funds the Regional Administrator must review and approve the initial grant application, along with Project Worksheets submitted with the application and any subsequent amendments to the application.

(3) Recipients will award Federal funds to subrecipients under State law and procedure and complying with 2 CFR parts 200 and 3002.

(b) Equipment and supplies. Eligible costs include:

(1) Personal comfort and safety items normally provided by the State under field conditions for firefighter health and safety.

(2) Firefighting supplies, tools, materials, expended or lost, to the extent not covered by reasonable insurance, will be replaced with comparable items.

(3) Operation and maintenance costs of publicly owned, contracted, rented, or volunteer firefighting department equipment used in eligible firefighting activities to the extent any of these costs are not included in applicable equipment rates.

(4) Use of U.S. Government-owned equipment based on reasonable costs as billed by the Federal agency and paid by the State. (Only direct costs for use of Federal Excess Personal Property (FEPP) vehicles and equipment on loan to State Forestry and local cooperators may be eligible.)

(5) Repair of equipment damaged in firefighting activities to the extent not covered by reasonable insurance. FEMA will use the lowest applicable equipment rates, or other rates that FEMA determines, to calculate the eligible cost of repairs.

(6) Replacement of equipment lost or destroyed in firefighting activities, to the extent not covered by reasonable insurance, will be replaced with comparable equipment.

(c) Labor costs. Eligible costs include:

(1) Overtime for permanent or reassigned State and local employees.

(2) Regular time and overtime for temporary and contract employees hired to perform fire-related activities.

(d) Travel and per diem costs. Eligible costs include:

(1) Travel and per diem of employees who are providing services directly associated with eligible fire-related activities may be eligible.

(2) Provision of field camps and meals when made available in place of per diem;

(e) Pre-positioning costs. (1) The actual costs of pre-positioning Federal, out-of-State (including compact), and international resources for a limited period may be eligible when those resources are used in response to a declared fire.

(2) The Regional Administrator must approve all pre-positioning costs.

(i) Upon approval of a State's request for a fire management assistance declaration by the Assistant Administrator for the Disaster Assistance Directorate , the State should immediately notify the Regional Administrator of its intention to seek funding for pre-positioning resources.

(ii) The State must document the number of pre-positioned resources to be funded and their respective locations throughout the State, estimate the cost of the pre-positioned resources that were used on the declared fire and the amount of time the resources were pre-positioned, and provide a detailed explanation of the need to fund the pre-positioned resources.

(iii) The State will base the detailed explanation on recognized scientific indicators, that include, but are not limited to, drought indices, short-term weather forecasts, the current number of fires burning in the State, and the availability of in-State firefighting resources. The State may also include other quantitative indicators with which to measure the increased risk of the threat of a major disaster.

(iv) Based on the information contained in the State's notification, the Regional Administrator will determine the number of days of pre-positioning to be approved for Federal funding, up to a maximum of 21 days before the fire declaration.

(3) Upon rendering his/her determination on pre-positioning costs, the Regional Administrator will notify the Assistant Administrator for the Disaster Assistance Directorate of his/her determination.

(f) Emergency work. FEMA may authorize the use of section 403 of the Stafford Act, Essential Assistance, under an approved fire management assistance grant when directly related to the mitigation, management, and control of the declared fire. Essential assistance activities that may be eligible include, but are not limited to, police barricading and traffic control, extraordinary emergency operations center expenses, evacuations and sheltering, search and rescue, arson investigation teams, public information, and the limited removal of trees that pose a threat to the general public.

(g) Temporary repair of damage caused by firefighting activities. Temporary repair of damage caused by eligible firefighting activities listed in this subpart involves short-term actions to repair damage directly caused by the firefighting effort or activities. This includes minimal repairs to bulldozer lines, camps, and staging areas to address safety concerns; as well as minimal repairs to facilities damaged by the firefighting activities such as fences, buildings, bridges, roads, etc. All temporary repair work must be completed within thirty days of the close of the incident period for the declared fire.

(h) Mobilization and demobilization. Costs for mobilization to, and demobilization from, a declared fire may be eligible for reimbursement. Demobilization may be claimed at a delayed date if deployment involved one or more declared fires. If resources are being used on more than one declared fire, mobilization and demobilization costs must be claimed against the first declared fire.

(i) Fires on co-mingled Federal/State lands. Reasonable costs for the mitigation, management, and control of a declared fire burning on co-mingled Federal and State land may be eligible in cases where the State has a responsibility for suppression activities under an agreement to perform such action on a non-reimbursable basis. (This provision is an exception to normal FEMA policy under the Stafford Act and is intended to accommodate only those rare instances that involve State firefighting on a Stafford Act section 420 fire incident involving co-mingled Federal/State and privately-owned forest or grassland.)

Costs not directly associated with the incident period are ineligible. Ineligible costs include the following:

(a) Costs incurred in the mitigation, management, and control of undeclared fires;

(b) Costs related to planning, pre-suppression (i.e., cutting fire-breaks without the presence of an imminent threat, training, road widening, and other similar activities), and recovery (i.e., land rehabilitation activities, such as seeding, planting operations, and erosion control, or the salvage of timber and other materials, and restoration of facilities damaged by fire);

(c) Costs for the straight or regular time salaries and benefits of a subrecipient's permanently employed or reassigned personnel;

(d) Costs for mitigation, management, and control of a declared fire on co-mingled Federal land when such costs are reimbursable to the State by a Federal agency under another statute (See 44 CFR part 51);

(e) Fires fought on Federal land are generally the responsibility of the Federal Agency that owns or manages the land. Costs incurred while fighting fires on federally owned land are not eligible under the Fire Management Assistance Grant Program except as noted in § 204.42(i).