U.S. Rep. Claudia Tenney, NY-24, on Wednesday addressed pending new federal regulations that could hinder operation of local volunteer fire companies.
In a mid-morning press conference at the South Lockport Volunteer Fire Company hall, Tenney and local fire service representatives took issue with the practicality of “Emergency Response” regulations floated by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
The new set of safety and health standards for volunteer fire companies would dramatically increase mandated training for firefighters, according to Jonathan Schultz, Niagara County fire coordinator.
OSHA introduced the proposed standards/regulations in February and since then they were the subject of a twice-extended public comment period that closed on July 22. Tenney said the regulations could be adopted as early as November. During the public comment period, she added, she wrote to OSHA asking the agency to reconsider the regulations.
“These rules, which I think are maybe well intentioned, are going to cause more harm and more of a threat to public safety if implemented,” she said.
Fire service representatives said the thrust of the new standards is more specialized training for firefighters, in Hazmat and other special emergency response. According to Ed Tase Jr. of Lockport, president of the Firefighters Association of the State of New York (FASNY), firefighters would be required to undergo 300-plus more hours of training and fire chiefs would have to train for a full week at fire academy.
Also, Tase noted, in its proposed regulations OSHA determined the average volunteer company has an annual operating budget of $1.7 million. Volunteer fire companies in New York state run on less than $200,000 a year, he said.
“I can tell you with all these people behind me, I don’t think if you took all their budgets it’d come close to $1.7 million,” he said.
FASNY isn’t opposed to training for firefighters, Tase said, “We just want a seat at the table to help us make this a viable rule that all entities can work with and work with professionally. … (W)e want to modify the cost and time to volunteer firefighters.”
Of the new standards, Schultz said, “There are some good changes that should be implemented, in time, but many are absurd, especially in fire service. … These requirements on paper may look like they make sense, but it doesn’t look like it in the real world for our responders, whether it’s the biggest departments in the country or our rural volunteer firefighters that we see especially here in Niagara County.”
An an interview prior to the press conference Tase predicted that many fire companies simply wouldn’t adhere to OSHA’s new standards. The problem with that, he said, is if a firefighter is injured or killed on duty and the standards weren’t upheld, the fire company is legally responsible.
A virtual hearing is slated Nov. 12 for which FASNY is gearing up to make its case to OSHA. Tase said that FASNY and the National Volunteer Fire Council are meeting in Kansas next month “to set the table and put together our professional and real meat-and-potatoes testimony,” and that any volunteer fire department, and any citizen, can request time to offer a comment during the virtual hearing.
Tenney encouraged local residents to write letters to her and said she will make sure they get to OSHA.