OSHA Published a Proposed Rule Affecting Every
North Carolina Fire Department
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is proposing an extensive new safety and health standard, titled “Emergency Response,” to replace the existing “Fire Brigades Standard” 1910.156. This would now cover Emergency Response Organizations (ERO’s), which are fire departments. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for the “Emergency Response Standard” was published in the Federal Register on February 5, with the public comment period open until May 6. In some states public agencies are not required to meet this standard, but in NC, since we are an OSHA state, public agencies are not exempt.
Being an OSHA state, all of our departments will be impacted to some extent by this new proposed rule, and just the paperwork itself from applying this standard could be exhausting. Even though NC state law exempts volunteer fire departments, that is questionable, especially given the benefits and supervision they receive, as well as the impact of providing or receiving mutual aid from career departments and the issue of combination departments. I’m not sure many departments in NC will actually be exempt. The proposed changes are in a 90-day (ends May 6th) comment period and require immediate action by your fire department. The 608-page document published by OSHA contains data and compelling stories as to why the changes are needed, however the standard itself is only 66 pages. While we 100% agree with firefighter safety and everything that can be done to improve it, we feel the financial and time-consuming changes in the standard could actually have negative impacts on the fire service organizations and could actually decrease the already struggling number of firefighters and may force many to leave the service. We also question the reliability of some of the data and theories used to produce this proposal. 22 NFPA standards are now included in the proposed OSHA standard by reference. This means that any place the NFPA standard says “shall” or “must” the fire department would be responsible for including them. There are another 14 NFPA standards that are included in part. The bottom line is these changes would have major implications for every department, Officer, and firefighter in NC. Good or bad, your department needs to comment.
The proposed rule can be found here: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/02/05/2023-28203/emergency-response-standard
Section V, Summary of the Proposed Rule is a good place to start.
We are asking that every fire department in NC assign someone to start reading the proposed standard and that every department file a comment with specific information on the financial burden and hardships that it would create for your department. NCSFA will be submitting a State response, but the need for specific fire department responses is critical. This proposed updated standard would issue hundreds of new requirements that may be very burdensome, and in many cases impossible, for some, especially smaller and volunteer fire departments to comply with. While this may appear to have an impact only on smaller departments and volunteer departments, it also will affect larger departments which use NFPA as a guide, but not a requirement. We encourage all departments, volunteer, career, and combination to submit comments on this proposed rule and request a public hearing so OSHA can have the best possible understanding of how this proposed rule would impact departments. We also encourage you to send a letter to OSHA requesting a 90-day extension to the public comment period on this proposed rule. Following the submit comments link will give you directions, but the need to site specific data and hardships are important.
Submit comments: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/02/05/2023-28203/emergency-response-standard#open-comment
We need to ensure that OSHA has been provided with all pertinent data before proceeding with any new proposed rule.
The NVFC has also put together this outline of the proposed standard to further highlight important language and provide additional context to the comment guide.
