Readers know that the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is engaging in rulemaking to update its 40-year-old Fire Brigade Standard into a comprehensive Emergency Response Standard.
Cities are encouraged to review the proposed standard and provide comments to OSHA on the proposed changes. If you want to comment but are unsure of what to include in your letter, you can use this template provided by the National League of Cities. OSHA’s comment period ends July 22.
As a “state plan” state, Washington will be required to update its own safety standards for firefighters to comply with any new federal standards. Washington’s firefighter safety standards are primarily found in WAC 296-305 (Safety Standards for Firefighters) and WAC 296-824 (Emergency Response).
AWC has done an initial review of the proposed rule and produced a table that summarizes the new sections included in the OSHA proposed Emergency Response Standard and related sections of Washington’s current standards for firefighters and fire brigades. Here are a few highlights:
- OSHA’s proposed rule incorporates by reference thousands of pages of NFPA and ANSI standards. Washington’s rules incorporate some NFPA and ANSI standards by reference as well, but to a much more limited extent.
- The NFPA standards incorporated by Washington rules appear to sometimes be older versions of those standards, so departments should review any major changes that occurred between the different editions.
- OSHA’s proposed rules tend to create more specific record-keeping requirements, as well as more direction on what exactly needs to be included in the documentation. The proposed rule creates a number of new and specific requirements for things like medical evaluations and training.
- OSHA’s proposed rule also appears to create more planning documentation than is currently required in Washington.
- For example, the proposed rule would require fire departments to conduct a comprehensive “community vulnerability assessment” of their entire service area, marking things such as known high-risk structures and other specified facilities.
You can find the our side-by-side table comparing the proposed federal rule and current state rules here.
OSHA extends comment period on Emergency Response Standard Rulemaking to July 22
June 8, 2024
OSHA has extended the comment period on their proposed Emergency Response Standard rulemaking to July 22. The extension comes following requests from the National League of Cities and other stakeholders asking for an extension so that more impacted jurisdictions could learn about the rulemaking and make informed comments about the impacts of the proposal.
AWC encourages all cities with fire departments to review the proposed rule and let OSHA know how the expanded standards would impact your department. You can find the proposed rule here (check the last 40 pages for the actual rule language) and you can submit comments to OSHA here.
Over 100 Washington cities have their own fire departments - ranging from large professional departments to small volunteer departments – and could be subject to the changed standards. Here are a few specific highlights that we’ve learned about the proposed rule that complement NLC’s points we shared in April:
- The proposed rule incorporates by reference potentially thousands of additional pages of American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standards and gives them the force of law.
- OSHA’s estimates for the cost of compliance with the proposed rules are based on 2005 wages and may underestimate the time needed to comply with new record keeping requirements.
- The proposed rule increases the amount of training time needed for volunteer firefighters and increases the cost of medical examinations.
- Mandatory retirement of equipment after a certain number of years, regardless of wear and tear.
- Liability is tied to a complex and wide-ranging rule change that incorporates many new standards that some departments may not have the resources to comply with.
Some additional resources to understanding the proposed emergency response rule can be found here:
Ironically, OSHA’s proposed rule would only directly impact emergency response standards in “state plan” states like Washington. In non-state plan states, OSHA directly regulates workplace safety, but only for private sector workers. Most emergency responders are public employees. In contrast, state plan states must meet or exceed federal standards with their own state rules, and both private and public sector are subject to those federally compliant state standards.
L&I has not yet done a comparison between Washington’s current emergency response standards and the proposed federal emergency response standards. The department expects that the federal proposal will undergo significant changes before final adoption and plans to respond to the rule then. In the meantime, AWC is working on a comparison and will keep cities informed as this issue develops.
Federal OSHA looks to update and expand fire brigades standard to include EMS and search and rescue
April 10, 2024
The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is proposing an update to the federal “fire brigades” standard, a standard that regulates firefighting training, personal protective equipment, health & safety standards, and the organization and operation of a fire department. The existing standard is over 40 years old, and the proposed changes would expand the standard to include other emergency services like emergency medical services and technical search & rescue services.
According to the National League of Cities (NLC), while the rulemaking began as far back as a 2015 stakeholdering process, there is concern that local governments were not significantly engaged in the process. NLC is submitting comments that including highlighting several key issues, including:
- The proposed rule could impose unfunded mandates, leading to a considerable increase in local spending on fire and emergency services,
- Concern about the new rules’ implications for volunteers and potentially classifying them as employees,
- Questions about the proposed rules’ feasibility, including the broad implications for search & rescue services, costs of upgrading living areas for emergency responders, and proposed new health and fitness requirements,
- Concern that OSHA’s preliminary economic analysis underestimates the true financial impact to local governments,
- Concerns about penalties for non-compliance and broader liability concerns and impacts on local governments.
If cities are interested in filing their own comments, OSHA is accepting comments until June 21, 2024 and they can be submitted here. You can read more about the proposed emergency services standard, including the 250-page proposed rule, here.
Washington is a “state plan” state for the purposes of labor laws – meaning that while the state has elected to enforce its own labor laws (not merely default to federal law), state laws must be at least as protective as existing federal labor laws and rules. Part of the state plan requires that the state enforce new federal standards until equivalent or more protective state standards are adopted. Any aspects of a new federal Emergency Services Standard (if adopted) that aren’t already included in Washington laws or regulations would need to be enforced by L&I until the state adopted its own standards meeting or exceeding federal rules.