First responders help to keep people safe, but what about their safety? The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is looking to update its first responders safety standard for the first time since 1980. However, some New York state firefighters are concerned the proposal could put them out of business without some help.

What You Need To Know

  • The Occupational Health and Safety Administration is proposing new first responder safety standards for the first time since 1980

  • Proposal 1910.156 could add more financial, timely, and recruitment challenges for smaller, more rural New York State fire departments that have already been struggling for years

  • OSHA says it has no intention of challenging fire department municipalities across the country

  • FASNY is frustrated it saves taxpayers $3.8 billion every year and was not offered a fair chance to help write the proposal

The North Tonawanda Fire Department consists of half paid, and half volunteer firefighters. Assistant Chief Kyle Stevener has been with the department since 2008.

“We're an all hazards department," Stevener said. "We do EMS to the advanced life support level. Paramedic. First response."

However, they’re a minimal manpower department. There are around 60 first responders serving roughly 31,000 residents, as New York state continues struggling with firefighter recruitment efforts while facing more calls than ever.

“Probably about 3800 calls a year, in that ballpark," he said. "The bell rings and they go out the door."

First responders across the country may be affected by OSHA’s new proposal — Proposal 1910.156.

“I don’t disagree with the changes that are needed, the issue is the timeline that they put it in,” Stevener said.

FASNY says some of the new document's new requirements include fire departments replacing their turnout gear every 10 years. The firefighter uniform can cost about $4,000 per person. They say the gear could last longer if members are taking care of the gear, and at times, ten years is unnecessary for replacement.

“In the proposal rule with OSHA, a lot of the stuff is equal," Stevener said. "So it adds a cost. A set of turnout gear is just north of $4,000 a year. To replace that every 10 years for each member is going to add some money. [And there's] the physical requirements. So a physical now for us, last year was roughly $185 per member. It's going up to approximately $1,200 a member, which could add upwards of $60,000 to our budget, which we may or may not have. So it is a big undertaking."

Group leaders say it also includes additional requirements for each firefighters annual physical. Currently, a typical physical per member costs roughly $20 per person. However, the additional standards could require annual physicals to include health evaluations like mammograms, EKGs and stress tests. Those extra tests could raise the cost to at least $1,000 per member, per year.  

“The questions we have are what happens when somebody, has a diagnosis or they find something during these, physicals that, do not let them do their job," Stevener said. "So they're still employed, but now we have to fill their spot with overtime, which also is an added expense, which I don't think OSHA accounted for."

The final difference the OSHA proposal is suggesting is additional training hours. In some cases, training hours could be tripled for members just to start the job.

“The big thing is the administration of it all," Stevener said. "So, a lot of things are, policy driven. Anytime we develop a new policy, we have to train on it. So that adds extra hours. our particular department, our career side, a good portion of it is done off duty, where we bring guys in, and they're paid for their time. So that could also be another cost factor. So every policy and procedure that's developed, you know, even including the information that's in the proposed rule, to bring us up to speed is going to cost us money every step of the way, essentially.”

FASNY says the majority of department budgets come from taxes depending on how large of a department, a population and a square mile radius. The organization says the lowest budget across the state is a smaller, more rural and volunteer department and they receive between $60,000 and $65,000 a year. If the proposal passes, no department wants to be the reason for higher taxes, so FASNY says it will start doing extra fundraisers to minimize the additional costs and encourage sharing of resources between the departments. Group leaders add that the fire department is a brotherhood, and they’ll help each other out before any department has to consider closing.