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Editorial
Expecting too much
The Rappahannock County Fire and Rescue Association has brought to our attention a proposal by the state to adopt a set of mandatory regulations known as NFPA 1500, Standard on Fire Department Occupational Safety and Health Program.
While no one criticizes the standard’s goal of reducing deaths and injuries of those working in that most hazardous of professions, firefighting, the mandator}' requirements contained in NFPA 1500 could well mean the end of the volunteer fire service in Virginia.
NFPA 1500 includes mandatory physical fitness requirements which many volunteer department members would be unable to meet. Some of the other requirements would be beyond the financial capability of our small volunteer departments, including a member assistance program offering counseling to firefighters experiencing financial difficulty, stress or personal problems.
We are absolutely in agreement that professional firefighters, whether paid or volunteer, should be protected to the greatest extent possible.
However, firefighters realize that their work is inherently dangerous. There is no way around that fact, and no way to make their job completely safe.
The volunteer departments in Rappahannock County have in the past, and continue to, demonstrate concern for the safety and well-being of their members. Most have recently purchased new apparatus, clothing and other equipment which conforms to the NFPA standards. Never has there been more encouragement for firefighters to take training classes, and never have more different classes been available.
The NFPA 1500 standards, however, are a good idea carried too far. There’s no way to legislate complete safety — particularly in an inherently dangerous occupation like : firefighting - and putting volunteer fire companies out of business by forcing them to spend ridiculous sums of money in the futile pursuit of that goal is neither fiscally responsible nor desirable.
We hope that the Virginia Fire Services Board will listen to the concerns voiced by the Rappahannock County Fire and • Rescue Association, and its counterparts across the Commonwealth, and recommend to the General Assembly : that the NFPA 1500 standards not be adopted.
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