Fire service acts to preserve FY2003 FIRE Act funding
At a meeting with the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) Terrorism Committee at the White House in February, Tom Ridge, director of the U.S. Office of Homeland Security, announced that he and his office are preparing a national strategy for terrorism prevention and response, which is expected to include mutual aid as a significant strategic component.
He also reiterated what had been reported concerning President George W. Bush’s proposed budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2003that the administration is proposing a $3.5 billion block grant assistance program for first responders. The program would be administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Funding would be made available to localities through the states to help ensure mutual assistance among and between units of local government.
Ridge also clarified his position on FEMA’s Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program (FIRE Act). He told the IAFC Committee on Terrorism that he strongly supports it as a separate program to be appropriately funded.
Initially, it had been reported that the proposed grant program would incorporate the FY2003 funding for the FEMA Assistance to Firefighters Program. At an Office of Homeland Security press conference held in February, it was explained that FEMA would distribute funds for the proposed First Responder Initiative to the states on a per-capita basis and that the states would then provide money to the localities. The states would be able to keep 25 percent of the funds to build on their existing capabilities and develop, conduct, evaluate, and perfect exercises that ultimately would constitute an effective comprehensive response to “the full range of terrorist threats they may face.” The Initiative’s ultimate objective, it was explained, is to facilitate the creation of a mutual-aid network across the country in which federal, state, local, and volunteer organizations can work together “seamlessly.” If Congress and the President were to agree on the $3.5 billion First Responder Initiative, FEMA and the Office of Homeland Security would develop the details of the program.
Fire service organizations had expressed their opposition to not separately fund the FIRE Act grant program for FY 2003, for which Congress had authorized $900 million.
In February, John Buckman, president of the IAFC; Harold A. Schaitberger, general president of the International Association of Fire Fighters; and Philip C. Stittleburg, chairman of the National Volunteer Fire Council sent a joint letter to President Bush expressing concern “that the budget recommendation would negatively impact the FEMA FIRE Grant Program.”
They said the FIRE Act should be retained in its current form because it is the only federal program that provides funding directly to fire departments. They pointed out that state and local officials often divert to other uses federal funds intended to aid fire departments.
Buckman, Schaitberger, and Stittleburg also testified before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on VA/HUD and Independent Agencies of the Committee on Appropriations concerning “Requirements for the Fire and Emergency Service.” They explained that the FEMA Assistance grant program “was markedly efficient in funneling desperately needed federal resources directly to the fire departments.” They requested that Congress continue to use the Assistance to Firefighters grant program to distribute any funds appropriated to assist the fire service in its mission of domestic defense. “We do not think there is a need to establish any new programs for terrorism preparedness. The mechanisms to get necessary resources to local responders are in place. Let’s use them,” Buckman stated.
The IAFC has asked fire service members to contact their congressional representatives and urge that they fund the FIRE Act as it was authorized by law.
The fire service leaders also emphasized to Congress the urgency for increasing staffing in career, combination, and volunteer fire departments. The objective, they said, is to add 75,000 firefighters to the fire service so that staffing levels throughout the country can be increased to four firefighters per unit instead of three.
Stittleburg appealed for assistance for volunteer fire departments: “Many jurisdictions, especially those in rural and suburban areas protected by volunteers, have little or no capability to respond to terrorist attacks using weapons of mass destruction.”
Peter Morris, assistant chief of the Bethesda-Chevy Chase (MD) Volunteer Rescue Squad, also testified before the Senate Committee. He stressed the critical role of local fire, rescue, and EMS departments: “Local fire and rescue services are the only agencies that can respond within minutes and save lives while there is still time. They must be equipped to provide initial response, immediate rescue and treatment, and scene stabilization capabilities.”
FEMA Director Joe Allbaugh, at a meeting with the IAFC, also voiced his support for continuing the Assistance to Firefighter Grant Program.
Buckman said he was pleased that Ridge and Allbaugh have endorsed the funding of the Firefighter Assistance program. However, Buckman noted: “While we have been assured of support for the fire grant program by two key administration officials, it is important to remember that Congress will determine what gets funded and at what level. Therefore, it is most important to keep up the current campaign of chiefs communicating with their federal elected officials to explain how important the fire grant program is to the American fire service.”
UL continues to urge inspection and testing of dry sprinklers
Underwriters Laboratories Inc. (UL) is again reminding property owners of buildings equipped with dry sprinklers that have “O-ring” water seals to have samples of those sprinklers inspected and tested immediately. Based on ongoing research, UL has found that these sprinklers may not operate in a fire because they may require water pressures higher than those that may be available in the building.
UL has tested more than 700 dry sprinkler samples of various brands that had been removed from more than 100 installation locations. Approximately 50 percent of the samples required inlet pressures greater than 7 psi to discharge water; about 22 percent required an inlet pressure of greater than 40 psi. UL has also received reports of ice forming within the internal waterway of some dry sprinklers installed within freezers. Based on the information available, UL engineers believe that ice inside the sprinkler assembly may contribute to undesired sprinkler discharge and inhibit sprinkler operation in a fire condition.
Dry sprinklers are generally found in locations with harsh environmental conditions characterized by wide variations in temperature, humidity, and corrosive conditions such as attics, carports, cold storage structures, parking garages, warehouses, and unheated portions of buildings.
UL says that any dry sprinkler showing signs of corrosion, regardless of construction type or year of installation, should be replaced. Dry sprinklers installed within freezers should be inspected for evidence of the formation of ice within the waterway.
UL has disseminated several public notices concerning the operating performance of certain sprinklers and has recommended specific precautionary actions. Public notices with regard to dry sprinklers were issued on January 22, 1999, and March 3, 2000. On July 27, 2001, UL announced several revisions to its sprinkler standards; among them were additional performance and construction requirements for dry sprinklers.
For additional information, contact Kerry Bell, UL, at (847) 664-2629 or by e-mail: kerry.m.bell@us.ul.com.
NFPA’s Solomon and Duval on teams studying WTC collapse
Robert E. Solomon, P.E., and Robert F. Duval of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) have been named to committees that will study the September 11 collapse of the World Trade Center towers. Solomon, a registered professional engineer and the NFPA’s chief building fire protection engineer, has been named to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat’s Special Task Force on the Future of Tall Buildings.
Duval, the NFPA’s senior fire investigator, is a member of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Building Performance Assessment Team for the World Trade Center. He previously served as a loss prevention specialist for Factory Mutual Engineering.
IAFC stresses importance of responding to FCC audit
Fire and emergency medical service organizations can lose their licenses for their two-way radio systems if they fail to respond to a Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Wireless Telecommunications Bureau (WTB) audit, warns the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC). To update and increase the accuracy of the FCC’s Private Land Mobile Radio (PLMR) database, the FCC is currently auditing the construction and operational status of all PLMR, including public safety stations licensed on frequencies below 512 MHz subject to frequency coordination and rule-based construction and operational requirements. (This includes nearly all two-way radio systems used by U.S. fire and emergency medical services.)
Departments with a radio communications system operating on a frequency or frequencies below 512 MHz should have received an audit letter from the FCC. Failure to respond within the specified timeframe may subject the radio user to administrative action such as a forfeiture or cancellation of the license, stresses the IAFC. Departments that are not sure of the frequency on which their system transmits should check their FCC license or consult their radio technician.
Departments can verify whether their station(s) is included in the Commission’s audit by consulting the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau Web site database at www.fcc.gov/-wtb/plmrs/audit.html. The database will also indicate whether the FCC has received the department’s response. If the database indicates that a letter has been sent to your organization and you have not received it, call 1-888-225-5322; select option 2.
Ron Haraseth, director of the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials International (APCO) Automated Frequency Coordination (AFC) also warns that agencies that do not respond to the FCC audit may “suffer some serious consequences.”
Haraseth says the FCC WTB has sent follow-up letters to agencies that have not responded. The FCC, he adds, has not received responses from 139,833 agencies. Because of the mailing problems that have occurred after September 11, 2001, the FCC is being flexible with its compliance dates, Haraseth explains. But, he reiterates, failure to respond within the specified timeframe may eventually subject agencies to administrative action such as forfeiture or cancellation of licenses.
The agency’s reply to the audit must be mailed to the FCC on a form that can be downloaded from the FCC Web site at http://www.fcc.gov/wtb/plmrs/conopauditform.doc or http://www.fcc.gov/wtb/plmrs/ conopauditform.pdf.
Last August the FCC began mailing hundreds of thousands of letters to license holders for all frequencies below 512 MHz, requesting a response to a question of the construction or “in use” status of all licenses, including all public safety operations. The FCC spread the mailing over several months; the mailing was done in alphabetical order. (Note: If your agency has licenses registered as in the following example”Alabama, State of” and “State of Alabama”they will not appear together unless they are all associated with your TIN registration.)
Since the FCC holds the licensee responsible for maintaining accurate information, make sure this information is updated on your license or you may not receive FCC communications. If you do not want to chance losing your radio system license, it would be wise to review the online database to determine whether or not the FCC received any or all of the audit forms your agency submitted for licenses, Haraseth suggests.
For assistance or additional information, contact APCO AFC at 1-386-322-2500.
Rep. Weldon responds to union’s prohibition of volunteer firefighting
Representative Curt Weldon (R-PA), in a statement made on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives in February, has “respectfully requested” that those International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) locals that have banned firefighters from volunteering in the community in which they live or forfeit their union card reconsider that position.
Referring to an article in the Washington Post concerning the ban advocated by some IAFF locals, Weldon said that the good will that has developed between the Congressional Fire Caucus and the nation’s fire and emergency service providers is “currently being undone by a resolution passed by IAFF locals …that tells their membership they can no longer volunteer in the course of serving the communities where they live. So a firefighter in the District of Columbia who lives in suburban Maryland or Virginia is no longer allowed on his own free time to serve the community where he lives. If he wants to do that, he must give up his union card.”
One IAFF leader, Weldon noted, said it well: “Many of the smaller communities rely solely on volunteer stations, and they stand to lose a lot. This is all about men and women who really just love being a firefighter. Volunteering on their days off, whether in their own county or nearby, keeps their skills fresh. This just unnecessarily drives a wedge between the careers and the volunteers, and that eventually hurts the public.’ ”
Weldon said the Caucus would “continue to support firefighters, career and volunteer, and to fight for more funding to provide even for paid personnel where there are shortages. But this kind of a policy drives a wedge between career and volunteer fire and EMS people that is just, I think, unthinkable.”
Air base in Kyrgyzstan named after late FDNY Chief Ganci
U.S. Air Force Captain Kristi Beckman, 376th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs, has announced that the U.S. Air Force base in Kyrgyzstan is now known as “Ganci Air Base.” It was named in honor of the late Fire Department of New York Chief Peter J. Ganci Jr, who lost his life in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. The announcement was reported in the February 15, 2002, edition of AIR FORCE NEWS.
National Fallen Firefighter Memorial Service to be held in Washington, DC
The Annual National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Service honoring firefighters who died in the line of duty in 2001 will be held in Washington, DC, on Sunday, October 6, 2002, at the MCI Center.
National Fallen Firefighters Foundation Chairman Hal Bruno said the memorial service was moved from Emmitsburg, Maryland, to Washington, DC, because of the “the unprecedented number of firefighters being honored this year.”
Additional details on the memorial service and related events will be announced as soon as plans have been finalized. For additional information, contact the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation at (301) 447-1365, or visit the Web site www.firehero.org.
Officer charged with manslaughter in training exercise death
An Oneida County (NY) grand jury indicted Alan G. Baird III, 30, a former Lairdsville (NY) Fire Department officer, in the death of a 19-year-old firefighter killed in a live-burn training exercise. Baird, who has been a volunteer firefighter for 12 years, was charged with second-degree manslaughter for setting the fire for the exercise, held last September in an abandoned building. If convicted, Baird could receive a sentence of from five to 15 years.
[Source: Utica Observer-Dispatch, Feb. 6, 2002; “(NY) former firefighter faces manslaughter charge in fatal fire,” Ken Little.]
Supreme Court rules on Disabilities Act
The Supreme Court recently ruled unanimously that to qualify as disabled under the Americans with Disabilities Act the employee must have substantial limitations on abilities that are “central to daily life,” not only to life in the workplace (Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky, Inc. v. Williams Certiorari to the U.S. Ct. of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit).
The court stressed that disability should be determined on an individual, case-by-case basis and not on a medical diagnosis. The opinion, by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, is considered by some to be a major victory for employers.
Poison Control Centers have central hotline
The following toll-free telephone number can now be used to reach a poison control center anywhere in the United States: 1-800-222-1222.
Virginia haz-mat team awarded NFPA Warren W. Isman grant
The Henrico County (VA) Division of Fire hazardous materials team is the recipient of the 2002 National Fire Protection Association Warren E. Isman educational grant. The team will use the $2,500 grant to study biological and chemical terrorism at the International Hazardous Materials Response Teams Conference, sponsored by the International Association of Fire Chiefs to be held in May.
Hazardous-materials incident response teams from fire, police, or other publicly funded programs seeking specialized training are eligible to apply for the grant. Qualified teams must have demonstrated excellent leadership and communication skills and must have been trained in compliance with NFPA 472, Standard for Professional Competence of Responders to Hazardous Materials Incidents, and NFPA 473, Standard for Professional Competence of EMS Personnel Responding to Hazardous Materials Incidents.
Recipients must use the grant to attend a hazardous materials conference.
Wildland fire dangers addressed at National Wildland Fire Summit
Representatives of major wildland fire organizations recently met at the First Annual National Wildland Fire Policy Summit, hosted by the International Association of Wildland Fire (IAWF), based in Fairfax, Virginia. The agenda covered discussions on the unique dangers and challenges of wildland fires and the development of key initiatives to address improvements needed in responding to and managing wildland fires.
During 2000, more than 123,000 wildfires burned in excess of 8.4 million acres, requiring the efforts of more than 30,000 firefighters, notes Bruce Suenram, IAWF president. “The issue of wildland fires is a critical one throughout the world and not just for rural forested lands but for highly populated areas as well,” he explained. In addition, Suenram says, “On average, approximately one-third of all firefighter line-of-duty deaths involve wildland fires.”
Representatives from the Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Indian Affairs, National Association of State Foresters, National Park Service, U.S. Fire Administration, U.S. Forest Service, Public Entity Risk Institute, Western Governors Association, and other industry experts attended the summit.
Among the issues discussed were the following:
- identifying major issues facing the wildland fire community,
- cooperation and mutual support of the different agencies involved in wildland fires, and
- developing processes for addressing ongoing concerns.
For more information, contact Tony McDowell, IAWF program manager, at 804-833-2955, or by email: wildfire@iawfonline.org.
First FY2002 FIRE Act grants to be awarded in May
The application period for the 2002 Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program closed on April 1. Evaluation panels will review applications in April and May, and grants will be awarded beginning in May and continuing until all funds have been awarded.
The program is funded at $360 million. Fire departments were able to apply for eligible activities in the following areas: Fire Operations and Firefighter Safety (training, wellness and fitness, firefighting equipment, and personal protective equipment); Fire Prevention (public education, public awareness, code enforcement, and arson prevention); Emergency Medical Services (training, equipment); and Firefighting Vehicles.
Membership to vote on NFPA 5000
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) membership will vote on the proposed NFPA 5000, Building Codes, at the organization’s World Safety Conference and Exposition, May 19-23. NFPA 5000 was developed through a consensus process accredited by the American National Standards Institute.
New members appointed to NFPA Standards Council
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) board appointed Philip J. DiNenno, P.E., of Baltimore, to a three-year term as chair of the Association’s Standards Council. Rick Breezee, of Brooklyn Park, MN; John C. Stevenson, of San Diego; and Peter J. Gore Willse, of Portland, CT, were appointed as new members to the body. All appointments were effective January 1, 2002.
States adopt electrical and sprinkler codes
The following states have adopted National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) codes:
- Montana (Building Codes Bureau) adopted NFPA 13, Standard for the Installation of Sprinkler Systems.
- Massachusetts (Board of Fire Prevention Regulations), New Hampshire (State Electricians’ Board), North Carolina (Building Code Council), and North Dakota (State Electrical Board) adopted the National Electrical Code® (NECT).
- Massachusetts (Board of Fire Prevention Regulations) will replace its existing fire code with the NFPA 1 model fire code when it becomes available in 2003.
Line-of-Duty Deaths
January 31: Master Firefighter Thomas Earl Brooks, 48, of the Lumberton (NC) Fire Department, died after participating in a strenuous physical training activity and responding to three calls during his shift.
February 3: Lewis A. Rickards, 55, president of the Lewes (DE) Fire Department, Inc., was killed while en route, in a fire department vehicle, to a fire association executive meeting when another vehicle broadsided his.
February 8: Firefighter Steven M. Olander, 39, of the Detroit (MI) Fire Department, died of an aneurysm stemming from traumatic injuries sustained while working on the fireground of a multistory apartment building fire in January.
February 10: Firefighter Rex Walter, 69, of the Napanoch (NY) Fire Company, collapsed and died while donning his turnout gear in preparation for responding to a chimney fire alarm.
February 11: Firefighter Vincent Davis, 42, of the Dallas (TX) Fire-Rescue Department, died of injuries sustained when a building wall collapsed on him at the scene of an unoccupied building fire.
February 13: Firefighter Robert Samuel “Bobby” Nichols Jr., 39, of the Loretto Volunteer Fire Department, Cullman, Alabama, collapsed and died while performing traffic control and other support duties at the scene of a water-main break.
February 18: Chief Ray Ebel, 62, of the Newaygo (MI) Fire District, collapsed at the scene of a house fire and died at the hospital a short time later.
March 1: Firefighter Shane Murray, 21, of the Jefferson City (TN) Fire Department, died from injuries sustained while working a house fire. The incident was under investigation at press time.
Source: National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Database, United States Fire Administration.
