The Washington State Fire Chief’s Training and Safety & Officers section are proud to announce that the new Emergency Vehicle Incident Prevention (EVIP) program is approved and in motion!  After a laborious update process the new program has been approved by the State Department of Licensing and the Washington State Patrol, Fire Protection Bureau. There are some major updates to the program that will need to be communicated state-wide.

The new program now has a trainer re-certification policy that requires trainers to have a Train-the-Trainer (T-t-T) refresher course every 5 years. Those who have been trainers under previous EVIP standards will still need to receive this most current T-t-T course and use the current course materials to remain a certified EVIP trainer.  Fire service members may register through the Washington State Fire Chief’s online for any of the upcoming T-t-T courses that are scheduled across the state.  There are also two opportunities to take the course at the Training and Safety & Officer’s Conference in Yakima the first week of March 2014. As part of the T-t-T course students will receive the newest EVIP program disc and all needed materials to bring the EVIP program back to their departments for immediate implementation...

Jan. 10, 2014 the Treasury Department issued a clarification that fire departments will not have to provide health insurance to volunteer firefighters.
 
Specifically, the IRS announced that its forthcoming regulations governing the shared responsibility provision "generally will not require volunteer hours of bonafide volunteer firefighters and volunteer emergency medical personnel at governmental or tax-exempt organizations to be counted when determining full-time employees (or full-time equivalents)."

Under the Shared Responsibility Provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), an employer with 50 or more full-time employees must offer affordable and adequate healthcare coverage to its employees. For this purpose, full time means 30 hours or more per week on average, with the hours of employees working less than that aggregated into full-time equivalents...

Rep. Lou Barletta (R-PA) and Senators Mark Warner (D-VA) and Joe Manchin (D-WV) worked together to introduce bipartisan legislation (H.R. 3685/S. 1798) to exempt fire departments from a requirement to offer health insurance to their volunteer firefighters and emergency medical personnel. 

The Protect Volunteer Firefighters and Emergency Responders Act will amend the definition of an employee€ under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) to create a clear exemption for nominally compensated volunteer firefighters and emergency medical personnel.

The PPACA (P.L. 111-148) was passed in 2010 and contained many reforms to the American healthcare system. One of these reforms requires certain large employers to offer health insurance to their full-time employees. In September 2013, the IAFC sent a letter to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to express concern that the IRS classification of volunteer firefighters as employees could potentially require certain fire departments to offer their volunteers health insurance under the PPACA...

The other day at an incident, I watch a veteran member of our department back up a vehicle without a backer even though there was a person in the passenger seat (two other members stood next to me when it happened). I walked over to the vehicle and had the driver stop and the passenger got out and finished backing the vehicle.  I asked the passenger, a member with less than 5 years on, why he didn’t get out and serve as a backer?  He looked at me and said “I wasn’t asked to”.  My next question was, “Did you ask the diver if a backer was needed?” The answer was “no”. I asked why and the passenger could not give me an answer.   After discussing with the two about the necessity of a backer, along with quoting the policy, I was approached by one of the people who, was standing next to me when this whole situation started to unfold.  That person very proudly said to me “I watch him do that all the time”.  I looked at that person and asked, wait for it, “Why haven’t you said anything?” I did not get a response and the person just shrugged and walked away.