Things worth knowing if you run a fire department website. Accessibility, the federal deadline, and getting people to actually apply. Every claim here links to its source, and the sources are primary.
After a fire, the insurance adjuster asks for the report and the owner goes looking on your site. Six parts of a page that answers them, why medical reports need their own path, and what to do for someone with no email this week.
If your department teaches CPR, residents need a page that says who the class is for, the date and place, the cost, what they get at the end, and how to sign up. Seven parts, an honest line about the card, and a sign-up that works on a phone.
If you install free smoke alarms, residents need a page that says who qualifies, how to ask, what happens at the visit, and who to call. Built from one real county's page, with the U.S. Fire Administration's basic advice for everyone who does not need an install.
Residents search for your burn rules before they call. The six parts of a page that answers them: who needs a permit, what you cannot burn, who issues it, how to apply, the conditions, and who to call. Built from one real city's page, with your own rules in place of its numbers.
Residents ask what the ISO class on their insurance means. The 1 to 10 scale, the four things a survey looks at (only one is your department), the records it leans on, and a five line page that answers the question for you.
Fire Prevention Week is October 4 to 10, and this year it is about charging lithium-ion batteries safely. A day by day plan built from NFPA's six tips and free toolkit, a page on your own site for the posts to point to, and why every graphic needs its words typed out.
The last Assistance to Firefighters Grant window was five weeks long, and the slow part is finding three years of numbers. What FEMA's own checklist asks for, who in your department holds each piece, the SAM.gov check to run this week, and the NERIS reporting change.
You recruit hard at the booth, then send people to a website with no application, no requirements and no name to contact. Five things a recruitment page needs, a ten minute check you can run on your phone, and the scanned-PDF trap that is also an accessibility problem.
If your department is a fire protection district or part of a town or county, yes, and the date is April 26, 2028. If it is a private volunteer company, it depends. Five questions that tell you which one you are, with the rule linked throughout.
The standard the federal rule names, in plain language and without the jargon. What it asks for, what it does not, and which parts of a typical department site fail it today.
There is a good chance your department is already on the board, with a finished site built to WCAG 2.1 AA, online right now and waiting.