Incident Report

Subject:                     Can your local Fire Department meet your needs?

Date of Email report:   Mon 30/05/2011

Report Detail:

I have been telling anyone who will listen…Take 10 minutes and call your local FD and discuss any changes they have made that could impact your business. FACT: All fire departments have been forced to make cuts in recent years; some more than others, but all have had to cut their budgets. The first cuts come to specialized programs, such as HAZMAT team, Special Rescue teams, etc. The vast majority of businesses rely solely on their local FD to provide all their emergency response needs (i.e. fire, rescue, HAZMAT, EMS). This IAFC article says it all…

“A simple example is that if you had 30 firefighters on your first alarm in the past, all arriving within seven minutes, but due to city hall cuts, you now have 15 firefighters in 10 minutes, it’s impossible for you and your members to provide service as expected previously. Simple math. No emotion. Just the way it is.”

If a facility relies on their local FD there are some regualtory requirements that call out “preplanning” be done. 1910.120(q) requires an Emergency Response Plan and the VERY FIRST topic in this plan is to be“Pre-emergency planning and coordination with outside parties”. 1910.146(k) requires the business to “Evaluate a prospective rescue service's ability, in terms of proficiency with rescue-related tasks and equipment, to function appropriately while rescuing entrants from the particular permit space or types of permit spaces identified”.

There are NO time limits setting how often this should be done; of course annually would be optimal, but because of limited resources many businesses are hard pressed to maintain this frequency. But due to the recent economic downturn, it is ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL that we take 10 minutes and check-in with the FD regarding our expectations. In the past 2-3 years we have found SIGNIFICANT gaps in what the business expects and what the FD can currently provide.

Many of the businesses met with their FD years ago and determined their capabilities; however, things have changed in the FD and they are NOT required to notify you that they disbanded their HAZMAT team or went from Tech level to Op’s level, or they no longer provide specialized rescue services or they went from entry style CS rescue team to a support role in CS Rescue. We have even found a business that years ago determined that they did not need a First Aid team since the local firehouse was literally around the corner and well within the 3-4 minute response time. However, this community actually reorganized their FD and this included a reorganization of fire house locations. Yep, the fire house around the corner is now a city day care and community training center for the unemployed. This means the business no longer has a 3-4 minute response time and needed to put in place their own first aid team. The beauty of a small community…

I went to the FD and asked if they could provide the First Aid/CPR training for FREE since the business was struggling to survive. The town council voted unanimously to allow the FD to provide this First Aid training for FREE to any business impacted by the reorganization of the fire houses (something they had no idea would impact their businesses).

Of course they thought I was a consultant trying to drum up “fear business” and had to call the local OSHA office to find out if I was telling the truth! Sad that our profession has vultures who do prey on small businesses. SAFTENG.net LLC works hard to distance ourselves from these kind of business practices!

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