By David Bullard
Writing for the NVFC
Every year during the third week of June, the Firefighter Safety Stand Down highlights critical safety, health, and survival issues for fire and emergency services personnel. This year the focus is on lithium-ion batteries, a potential risk for first responders during fire incidents. Fire departments are encouraged to use the week to focus on firefighter training and education relating to the theme.
- The Lithium-Ion Revolution
- Lithium-Ion Batteries: The 18650
- Humpday Hangout: Lithium-Ion Battery Fires
- Ciampo: Summer Shenanigans
- Halton: It’s What We Do
This year’s event will take place June 18-24 with the theme, “Lithium-Ion Batteries: Are You Ready?” As lithium-ion batteries become more prevalent in every aspect of society, it is critical that responders understand the hazards and the unique considerations when responding to a call involving a lithium-ion battery.
To help departments break this overarching theme down, each day during Safety Stand Down will feature a specific topic related to responder safety during incidents involving lithium-ion batteries.
- Monday: Recognition of hazards
- Tuesday: Firefighting operations
- Wednesday: Firefighter safety
- Thursday: Postincident considerations
- Friday: Public education
When planning your fire department’s activities to participate, start with an approach of fully understanding the problem. Whether your department has experienced a fire that has been caused or worsened by the involvement of lithium-ion batteries or not, the potential certainly exists. To develop buy-in for the week, include operations, training, inspections, and fire prevention personnel. Each one of those groups has an interest and role in preventing or mitigating these incidents.
While the week is designed with a different message each day, you can lay out how your department approaches the training based on your schedule. A career department may combine multiple topics into training on each shift. A volunteer department may combine topics to cover a few drill nights. As part of the public education focus area, you may even consider collaborating with civic organizations, other local safety entities, and your local government.
The next step is to gather training and resources that you can use during Safety Stand Down. The good news is that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. A plethora of resources are already available that you can incorporate into your activities.
Safety Stand Down is a joint initiative of the International Association of Fire Chiefs’ Safety, Health and Survival Section; the National Volunteer Fire Council; the National Fire Protection Association; the Fire Department Safety Officers Association; and the International Association of Fire Fighters. Through this unified effort, resources and trainings from the host organizations and other stakeholders are made available via the Safety Stand Down web site at no cost to local departments. This includes fact sheets on each daily topic, webinars and courses you can incorporate into your training activities, sample policies and procedures you can use to update your department’s operating guidelines, an interactive quiz to challenge your members on their knowledge of lithium-ion battery safety and response, and more. Visiting www.SafetyStandDown.org is the best place to start your planning process.
You can also visit the lithium-ion battery page of the U.S. Fire Administration’s web site to find tip sheets and social media graphics to use for public education. The UL Fire Safety Research Institute offers a free online training module on Science of Fire and Explosion Hazards from Lithium-Ion Batteries.
With the number of fires caused by or worsened by the presence of lithium-ion batteries, this year’s Safety Stand Down is a significant and timely topic. Please incorporate it into your agency’s training and make full use of the resources available.
David Bullard is a Georgia director for the National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC); member of the NVFC Hazmat Response Committee, Executive Committee, and Health, Safety, and Training Committee; and represents the NVFC on the NFPA 1021 Technical Committee. He is a lieutenant with Columbia County (GA) Fire Rescue and past president of the Georgia State Firefighters Association
