The” Fire Brigade Standard,” which has been in place for 50 years, is currently awaiting final approval from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration ( OSHA ). The 608 sites of new laws, quite simply, may indicate that about 80 % of volunteer fire departments in the United States would be forced to stop activities.
Advertisement
” Over 85 percent of America’s flames agencies are either volunteer or generally charity. Almost 700, 000 of America’s 1, 056, 000 rescuers are individuals or paid per visit firefighters”, a group of politicians, led by Sens. Jerry Moran (R-Kan. ) and Christopher Coons (D-Del. ) said in a speech. ” The proposed rule would apply to more staff than the existing common and may require fire agencies to provide new information, trainings, tools, and heath services”.
Related: A Weird Syndrome Is Linked to Heavy Pot Smoking, and Cases Have Doubled Since Legalization
OSHA’s new standards would “increase training requirements, require more pre-planning for emergency situations, set stricter limits on the lifespan of some firefighting equipment, and impose more rigorous health screenings for]fire ] fighters”, according to KCUR public radio.
For full-time rescuers, the fresh rules does save lives. We’ve learned a lot about toxins that burn away in flames as well as toxic fumes that can cause cardiovascular disease since the publication of the classic Fire Brigade Standard. The majority of firefighters who pass away while on the job do so because they do n’t die in fires but also from heart disease and cancer. A novel normal is long overdue.
This is acceptable for large-city organizations and other organizations that have volunteer-based full-time paramedics. However, the new standards also apply to other emergency personnel who would have to undergo training and other administrative rigor that small towns and rural counties simply could n’t afford.
Advertisement
Consider training: the proposed rules demand 80 days of education for firefighters. For individuals, that means two full weeks of work, squeezed in here and there, for no income.
” If I tell some of them younger guys that,’ Hey, you ca n’t spend the night with your wife and kids. You got to go to education evening,’ they may tell me to go motor dust”, said Joel Cerny, key of the Linwood, Nebraska, volunteer fire department.
Firefighting products would also need to be inspected more frequently by OSHA.
Because there is n’t anyone in our district who is a certified mechanic, I have to remove the fire truck from my district. But then I’m taking the vehicle out of the area for the whole day, leaving my district exposed”, said Cerny.
A lot of individuals will be classified as people for the functions of the law, according to Shoshana Weissmann, a governmental regulations analyst, the Sun. ” That means they’ll have to get lots and lots of extra training”.
The new regulations would be so expensive that many departments with limited resources would find it “prohibitive” and the training requirements would be “impractical for volunteers working full-time in other capacities.”
Citing an estimate from the president of the Kansas Fire Chief’s Association, Chad Russell, they note that “implementation of this rule could shutter up to 80 percent of volunteer departments nationwide”.
Advertisement
The Utah Sherriff’s Association said the rules would be” catastrophic” for search and rescue ( SAR ) volunteers. SAR volunteers are necessary, and they must be subject to some restrictions and regulations, according to the group, and they are urging OSHA to exempt all sheriff SAR volunteers from the rules. Failure to do so will unavoidably result in a large-scale volunteer exodus, putting countless lives at risk throughout Utah and the West.
When there is a government run by coastal elites who have little or no knowledge of how the majority of the population functions and lives. Starting this week, OSHA will hold public hearings to discuss the effects of the new regulations on volunteer fire departments in small and rural areas.
I’m sure they’ll get an earful.  ,
