15 U.S.C. § 2209 — Master plans

(a) Encouragement by Administrator^*. States and their political subdivisions are responsible for establishing master plans for fire prevention and control. The Administrator may encourage and help them with that planning, consistent with the Administrator’s powers and duties under this chapter. (b) Mutual aid systems. (1) In general. The Administrator must provide technical help and training to State and local fire-service officials to establish nationwide and State mutual-aid systems for national emergencies. The systems must—(A) include threat assessments and strategies for deploying equipment; (B) include ways to collect information about assets and resources so accurate and timely data is available for regional deployment; and (C) be consistent with the Federal Response Plan. (2) Model mutual-aid plans. The Administrator must develop and make available model plans for intrastate and interstate assistance. (c) “Master plan” defined. For this section, a “master plan” is a plan that will lead to planning and carrying out a general fire-prevention and fire-control program in the area covered. It is reasonably expected to include: (1) a survey of existing fire services’ resources and personnel and an analysis of how effective the area’s fire and building codes are; (2) an analysis of short-term and long-term fire-prevention and fire-control needs; (3) a plan to meet those needs; and (4) an estimate of cost, realistic plans to finance carrying out and continuously operating the plan, and a summary of expected implementation problems.