Somerville Fire Chief Mike Dostie discusses the potential impacts on Maine’s volunteer fire departments from a proposed rule change by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, during a meeting with the Somerville Select Board Wednesday, Feb. 14. (Molly Rains photo)
The Somerville Select Board convened a special meeting Wednesday, Feb. 14, to meet with Somerville Fire Chief Mike Dostie for a preliminary discussion of a rule proposed by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration for emergency responders.
The proposed rule, entitled “Emergency Response Standard,” was posted online in the Federal Register with a request for public comments on Feb. 5. Local fire departments and state-level experts alike are still “wading through” its language to determine what exactly its implications will be, Dostie said.
In a statement released in December, the U.S. Department of Labor stated the proposed rule was “a critical step” to ensure the safety of emergency responders across the nation.
As proposed, the rule could “affect everybody,” including both firefighters and emergency medical workers, Dostie told the select board. “There isn’t a fire department around here” that is perfectly compliant with the standard as local departments understand it so far, Dostie said.
He suggested that if the rule goes into effect with no subsidy or other financial support, local departments – especially small, volunteer departments, like Somerville’s – would lack the financial resources necessary to become compliant.
While the rule is federal in origin, “the Maine Department of Labor enforces federal labor rules on local governments, so it does apply to us,” Stephan Bunker, an emergency communications consultant and firefighter from Lewiston, said in an email. However, Bunker, like Dostie and other local firefighters, noted he was not yet clear on the extent the proposed rule would impact local fire departments.
The rule includes provisions requiring firefighting equipment from air tanks to fire engines be updated more frequently than is currently standard for many small departments. This includes imposing age limits of 30 years for fire trucks and 10 years for some personal protective gear, Dostie said.
“How … are we supposed to do that?” Select Board Chair Chris Johnson asked.
The cost of fire trucks is rising, with Newcastle expecting to pay about $700,000 for a new fire truck this year, though the vehicle itself would likely not be delivered for several years, town manager Kevin Sutherland said at a Jan. 8 Newcastle Select Board meeting.
While the Somerville Fire Department is currently “100% compliant” with safety standards, Dostie said he worried that more stringent guidelines would pose a financial hurdle for the department. For “a lot of small departments that have been grandfathered for years,” not all equipment is likely to be new enough to comply, he said.
The rule also contains language requiring more training for all firefighters, Dostie said, such as a need to get more firefighters trained to firefighter I or II levels, which are commitments requiring hundreds of hours of preparation and a written exam.
The full extent of the rule’s proposed mandate, as well as its impact on small departments and volunteer departments across Maine, was not yet completely clear, Dostie said.
However, he and the select board agreed that making working conditions safer for firefighters across Maine and beyond was an important, while complex and imposing, goal.
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health investigations into line-of-duty firefighter deaths, including two in Maine in 2019, suggested some safety precautions that are addressed in the new proposed rule, Dostie said.
However, Dostie and Select Board Chair Chris Johnson agreed, if implementing the rule proves financially debilitating for volunteer fire departments, the potential safety improvements may not be realized.
“Having no fire department is not safer than having a well prepared fire department,” Johnson said.
If financial support is provided to help small departments implement safety improvements, the rule could successfully help towns like Somerville make work safer for their emergency crews, Johnson said.
“It’s got to be done,” Johnson said. “We have to find a way to meet those expectations and still have fire departments – and have them adequately equipped and adequately trained.”
Local fire chiefs will continue to discuss the rule and its implications, said Dostie. He said he would continue sharing information with the Somerville Select Board as local departments learn more about the implications of the proposed rule.
The comment period for the proposed rule is open until May 6 on federalregister.gov.
The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Somerville Select Board is 6 p.m. on Wednesday, March 6, at the town office, 665 Patricktown Road. For more information, call 549-3828 or go to somervillemaine.org.
