President Biden will visit a Fairmount firehouse reopening after a devastating blaze that killed 12 last year

President Joe Biden will meet with firefighters Monday to mark the receipt of a $22.4 million federal grant to the Philadelphia Fire Department that will fund additional firefighters’ salaries, re-open three shuttered fire companies, and pay for a new class of trainees.

Biden is expected to meet with firefighters at Ladder 1, a fire company ladder truck in Fairmount that was decommissioned nearly 15 years ago and is returning to service thanks to a federal grant announced earlier this year.

A White House official said Biden will emphasize his support for the firefighting community and pay tribute to those killed during the tragic Fairmount rowhouse fire in 2022, in which 12 people, including nine children died. The blaze likely began when a 5-year-old boy lit a Christmas tree ablaze in the unit, which did not have working smoke detectors.

In the aftermath of the fire, Mike Bresnan, who leads IAFF Local 22, told Biden that had Ladder 1 fire company not been decommissioned in 2008, it would have been the closest ladder truck to the scene and would have responded to the call. He implored the president to secure funding to bring the company back in service.

Bresnan said Sunday that Biden’s administration delivering means that “he kept his word.”

“It’s just unfortunate that it happened in the first place,” Bresnan said of the fire. “But one thing about [Biden]: He cares for people. You can see that.”

The grant will also pay to bring Engine 6 and Ladder 11 back into service. Both trucks were decommissioned more than 14 years ago. It will fund the salaries and benefits of 72 firefighters for three years and fund a new class of trainees to enter the Philadelphia Fire Academy.

Local officials including Bresnan, Gov. Josh Shapiro, Mayor Jim Kenney, and Fire Commissioner Adam K. Thiel are expected to attend. Ed Kelly, president of the International Fire Fighters, and U.S. Fire Administrator Lori Moore-Merrell will also join Biden.

“Now we’re gonna have a fire company that would have been the first ladder truck assigned to rescue those people reopened, which makes not only the citizens of Philadelphia safer, but also the firefighters who put themselves at great risk,” Kelly said.

While campaigning for mayor eight years ago, Kenney said that one of his priorities would be reactivating the fire company at 16th and Parrish Streets, one of seven that former Mayor Michael Nutter’s administration closed in 2009.

The closures were a cost-cutting measure amid the Great Recession and a massive shortfall in the city budget.

But the firefighters union strongly opposed the closures and its leaders have worked alongside Kenney and Thiel to advocate for federal resources to reopen them.

The firehouse in North Philadelphia has been a key point of contention, especially since the January 2022 blaze, one of the deadliest in Philadelphia history. It was located about a mile away from the fire.

In the days immediately after the incident, Bresnan personally lobbied Biden for funding through the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s program known as SAFER, or Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response.

Four years ago, Bresnan’s local bucked its national umbrella organization and endorsed former President Donald Trump’s reelection bid in a decision that was highly controversial.

A 400-member group of Black firefighters sued over the process and some members sought Bresnan’s ouster, saying he and other leaders didn’t follow the union’s bylaws. The local ultimately stood by its endorsement, and a judge dismissed the lawsuit in April 2021.

Neither the local nor the international union has endorsed a candidate in the 2024 presidential election.

Biden has made funding and support for firefighters a priority throughout his political career and that helped win him the national union’s endorsement ahead of the 2020 election.

More recently the American Rescue Plan included $350 billion that states and cities could use to keep firefighters on the job. Biden also signed legislation last year to give $360 million each for a FEMA assistance grant and the SAFER grant programs, which he expanded as vice president.

Kelly, from the national firefighters union, declined to discuss plans or a timeline for an endorsement in this year’s presidential election.

“We’re not ready to discuss any of that right now,” he said.

He credited Biden with having a record of pushing for more funding and resources for firefighters.

Through federal money, Kelly said departments have added portable radios, modern breathing apparatuses, and other technical equipment to fire and rescue operations that have become more complex as wildfires spread across the United States.

“President Biden has always articulated that if you want to keep firefighters safe, give them more firefighters,” Kelly said, adding: “We still have a long way to go ensuring that the fire service in the United States is adequately staffed, equipped, and trained.”