In 2009, for the first time in its four-year history, the National Fire Fighter Near-Miss Reporting System posted 1,000 reports. More than 3,100 reports have been received since its inception in 2005.
Dennis Smith, chair of the Near-Miss Advisory Board, has announced that the Near-Miss Reporting System will reach out to an even larger audience with the System’s launching of a Near-Miss Facebook page (www.facebook.com/firefighternearmiss). Firefighters will now have the option of submitting a near-miss report to both sites. The Near-Miss program is studying the feasibility of providing downloadable mobile applications, which could be available as early as the summer of 2010.
Analysis and overviews from many of the 2009 reports are in the 2009 Annual Report. The report and the 2010 Near-Miss calendar, which features a monthly near-miss report with discussion questions and tips, are available without charge. E-mail info@firefighternearmiss.com; provide your name, mailing address, and the quantity you desire.
Line-of-Duty Deaths
November 14. Firefighter Ramon E. Hain, 50, Saint Paul (MN) Fire Department: heart failure.
November 21. Firefighter Walter Hessling, 54, Dix Hills (NY) Volunteer Fire Department: stroke.
November 22. Firefighter Terrance Freeman, 36, Rockford (IL) Fire Department: cause to be determined.
December 4. Fire Police Gary F. Neidig Jr., 36, Mount Carmel (PA) Volunteer Fire Department: cause to be determined.
December 10. Chief Jimmy Lee Davis Sr., 63, White Oak Volunteer Fire Department, Maysville, NC: medical emergency, cause undetermined.
December 12. Assistant Chief Gregory Paul Thompson Jr., 33, South Bay Fire Department, Olympia, WA: self-inflicted gunshot wound.
December 20. Assistant Chief Bobby Joe Mullins, 52, Dante (VA) Volunteer Fire Department: sudden cardiac arrest.
December 21. Battalion Chief Tommy Lee Adams, 51, Shreveport (LA) Fire Department: fall from a fire department ladder truck while clearing debris.
Source: USFA Firefighters Memorial Database
USFA report available for download
The 15th edition of Fire in the United States emphasizes the areas that still need improvement relative “to reducing the nation’s fire losses, especially deaths and injuries,” according to U.S. Fire Administrator Kelvin J. Cochran. The report covers the five-year period from 2003 to 2007 and has a primary focus on 2007.
Among the report’s contents are an overview of fires and losses in buildings, vehicles, and other properties; fire and fire loss trends; fire casualties by population characteristics; and fire cause profiles by property type. Detailed analyses of residential and nonresidential building fire problems will be published as stand-alone reports.
Sources for the report’s data include the National Fire Incident Reporting System, the National Fire Protection Association, the National Center for Health Statistics, State Fire Marshals’ offices, the U.S. Census Bureau, and the Consumer Price Index. Download Fire in the United States from the USFA’s Web site at http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/statistics/reports/fius.shtm/. Printed copies are expected to be available at a later date.
NIOSH releases firefighter fatality reports
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has recently released the following Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation Reports:
PA passes residential sprinkler requirement
Beginning January 1, 2010, all newly built townhouses in the state of Pennsylvania will be required to have a residential sprinkler system, and effective January 1, 2011, all newly constructed one- and two-family homes will also require the systems, according to a National Fire Sprinkler Association (NFSA) press release. The sprinkler requirements resulted from approval of regulation #12-89 and, consequently, adoption of the 2009 International Residential Code (IRC).
According to the NFSA, the inclusion of residential fire sprinkler requirements in the 2009 International Code Council’s IRC is in response to the growing fire problem in the United States deriving from the increased use of lightweight construction and the presence of more flammable home contents. “The entire fire services industry fought a tough battle in Pennsylvania. They would not have been successful without the help of each and every individual who supported this cause, including John Waters and Tim Knisely, cochairs of the Pennsylvania Residential Fire Sprinkler Coalition, and Ed Mann, the Pennsylvania State Fire Commissioner,” notes Ray Lonabaugh, NFSA mid-atlantic regional manager.
OSHA develops combustible dust standard
In December, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced that it was seeking the public’s input relative to its federal standard for combustible dust, according to a National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) press release. Its Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Combustible Dust identifies five NFPA standards that address the hazards of combustible dust processes. Of these standards, NFPA 654, Standard for the Prevention of Fire and Dust Explosions from the Manufacturing, Processing, and Handling of Combustible Particulate Solids, provides fundamental safety practices.
NFPA 654 could incorporate the relevant NFPA standards by reference, which would be consistent with the National Technology and Transfer Act, P.L. 113. The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) had recommended this approach in its Combustible Dust Hazard Study, 2006-H-1, November 2006, as did Congress in its Worker Protection Against Combustible Dust Explosions and Fires Act of 2009 (H.R. 849). All interested parties were to provide input to OSHA by January 19, 2010.
In addition to NFPA 654, the other dust explosion-related standards are NFPA 664, Standard for the Prevention of Fires and Explosions in Wood Processing and Woodworking Facilities; NFPA 61, Standard for the Prevention of Fires and Dust Explosions in Agricultural and Food Processing Facilities; NFPA 484, Standard for Combustible Metals; and NFPA 655, Standard for Prevention of Sulfur Fires and Explosions.
Industrial dust explosions have caused loss of life, injuries, and significant property damage over the past 15 years. The dangers of combustible dusts received some national focus in 2003, when three incidents took 14 lives and injured numerous others. The CSB’s 2006 Combustible Dust Hazard Study reported that from 1980 to 2005, combustible dusts caused 281 incidents that killed 119 workers and injured 718. An additional 16 deaths and 84 injuries occurred from 2006 to 2008.
The NFPA combustible dust standards, some of which date back to the 1920s, establish a series of steps that characterize the hazard and attempt to apply control measures designed to eliminate or minimize the hazard to workers and the facility, including hazard assessment, engineering controls (equipment and process isolation), housekeeping, building design, explosion protection, operating procedures, and worker training.
A new edition of NFPA 654 will be available in 2011 (it will be issued by the Standards Council in mid-2010). For information on the proposed changes to the standard, the Report on Proposals is available on the NFPA Web site, www.nfpa.org/. The Report on Comments will be completed in early 2010 and will be added to the Web page at that time.
DHS/FEMA/USFA issue SAFER Update
In mid-December, the Department of Homeland Security (DHA)/Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA)/U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) issued an update concerning Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grants.
The USFA noted that many jurisdictions applying for SAFER grants were concerned by the stipulation that SAFER funds not be used to supplant local budgets. The DHS reviewed the matter and has advised that it “will consider petitions for waivers on supplanting from 2009 grantees on a case-by-case basis and under certain conditions.”
Following is a summary of the conditions:
1. 2009 SAFER grantees that lose firefighters during the period of performance and cannot back-fill vacated firefighting positions because of documentable economic hardship may petition for a waiver. To qualify for this waiver, the economic hardship must affect the entire public safety sector in the jurisdiction, not merely the fire department.
2. The firefighter vacancies could be caused by retirement, voluntary or involuntary separation, or calls to active duty in the reserves or National Guard.
3. If a waiver is not granted, the original policies stated in the present guidance would still apply—i.e., vacancies caused by one of the circumstances cited in #2 above do not have to be replaced and will not cause a cancellation of the grant if not replaced. However, the allowable reimbursement of SAFER positions would be reduced by the number of vacated positions not replaced. (Example: A grantee has 20 firefighters and receives a SAFER grant for five more. One of the 20 retires and is not replaced. The grantee would then be eligible to receive reimbursement only for four instead of the original five firefighters.)
4. The policy regarding the prohibition against layoffs has not changed. No waivers will be granted for layoffs, and SAFER grantees are prohibited against laying off any firefighters during the SAFER grant’s period of performance.
5. Applicants are reminded that although there is a previous requirement that newly created positions be maintained for an additional one year past the period of performance, there is no requirement to maintain the positions past the period of performance for awards made to rehire vacated or laid-off firefighters.
NFPA revises Web pages for easier access to documents
Finding information pertinent to National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) codes and standards will be easier because of revised Web pages. The revisions were based on survey results from NFPA technical committee members, the volunteers who develop and revise the documents, and other participants in the process, according to the NFPA. Among the revisions are new search capabilities and having one central location for all the information concerning a particular document. The NFPA site is at www.nfpa.org/.
