Compressed air foam systems (CAFS) have made their way into an increasing number of fire apparatus and the use has grown exponentially. This can be attributed to a combination of factors such as an increased acceptance of this technology, more frequent exposure to the available systems, faster knock down, and the benefit of substantial suppression power when water resources are limited.  As with many technologies that have found their place on fire department vehicles; the reliability and credibility of such equipment is only guaranteed by routine exercise, inspection, maintenance, and deficiency reporting to the maintenance department or service center.

In 2012 the Officers Section of the Washington Fire Chiefs was consolidated with the Training and Safety Officers Section.  This allowed for the vision of the Officers Section to move forward and to ensure its message and philosophy on leadership development is not lost.  Officer development at all levels is the mission of this group.  The fire service continually seeks qualified individuals within and outside of their organization who possess the vital skills needed to guide their organization into the future. 

The International Association of Fire Chiefs Officer (IAFC) Development Handbook was created to provide guidance and a “clear roadmap for success as a fire officer”; (Jim Broman).  This program has four levels of preparation; supervising, managing, administrative and executive.  Each of these levels contains four areas of personal development; training, education, experience and self-development.  I will break down each of these areas as they are described in the IAFC Handbook. 

This serves as notification that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is releasing the Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 Fire Prevention and Safety (FP&S) Funding Opportunity Announcement (Grant Program Guidance) on February 11, 2014.  The application period for the FY 2013 FP&S Program will open on Tuesday, February 18, 2014 at 8:00 a.m. EST and will close on March 21, 2014 at 5:00 p.m. EST...

The impact of the Affordable Care Act on fire service volunteers, has been a vital fire service issue, which had the potential to impact the majority of departments in Washington state.  The Washington Fire Chiefs have been in contact with the IRS to ensure we can provide you with the most up to date information available. 

Yesterday the US Treasury Department released the new guiding documents giving fire service volunteers a clear exemption from the Affordable Care Act.  Please see the links to the source documents, and the pertinent excerpts included below. 

The Washington Fire Chiefs will be inviting an expert to our WFC Board Meeting & County Presidents Forum which will be held in Sequim, WA on April 1, 2014.  We would like to encourage you to email us any questions you might have on this issue, so that we might address them with our expert.  Please email those questions to wfc@washingtonfirechiefs.org...

Looking back, a lot has changed over the last thirty years in fire and EMS officer development.  Our industry was considered a trade and a high school diploma was sufficient to get hired.  An Associate’s degree was rare and a Bachelor’s degree was unheard of, even as we promoted through the ranks into management positions.  However, as an industry, we recognized the need to move from a trade to a profession.  There were many topics, such as human resources, finance and budgeting, strategic planning, and the like, that were not covered in high school or the fire academy. 

Realizing this, leaders began to focus on encouraging our incumbents to go back to school and earn a two year technical degree.  Employers also began to give more credit to candidates with college degrees who were seeking employment as a firefighter or paramedic.  This slow evolution created a new norm where a two year degree in fire science was an edge for those competing for company officer promotions or entry level positions.  This created a ripple effect upward and soon raised the bar within the profession for senior incumbents and chief officers.  Chief officers and chief officer candidates were headed back to school to earn their four year college degrees, and fire chief hopefuls were seeking post-graduate degrees.  Today, many entry level firefighters possess graduate and post-graduate degrees, and this has also served to encourage incumbent supervisors who want to lead these new firefighters to obtain more formal education...

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...

House, Senate Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Protect Volunteer Firefighters

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.