Federal Search and Rescue Aid Approved

Also See: Video Archive & Clinton to Attend Memorial Service

Federal Emergency Management Agency

Washington -- The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced Tuesday that federal assistance for search and rescue was approved for Massachusetts in support of response efforts to last Friday's six-alarm fire that razed a warehouse in Worcester and took the lives of six firefighters.

FEMA Director James Lee Witt said President Clinton authorized the aid under an emergency declaration issued this evening immediately after reviewing the agency's analysis of the state's request for federal assistance submitted earlier today.

Witt said the President's emergency declaration specifically authorizes FEMA to reimburse part of the cost for the activation and deployment of search and rescue personnel in Worcester County under the emergency protective measures provision of FEMA's public assistance program.

Sharon Lee Stoffel, of FEMA's regional office in Boston, Mass., was named by Witt to coordinate the federal response effort.