A change by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration could potentially drive up fire departments budgets and hurt recruitment across the country, including those in Chautauqua County.

According to the New York State Department of Mayors, significant changes have been proposed to the OSHA Fire Brigade Standard (1910.156). If approved in its current form, the rule will impact all fire departments – volunteer, combination, and paid – across New York and the country.

NYCOM says the 608 page document released by OSHA outlining the proposed changes would incorporate costly health and safety standard mandates and expose municipal fire departments to litigation and costly settlements. “This one size fits all approach could cripple already fiscally strapped departments and further negatively impact the recruitment and retention efforts of struggling volunteer fire departments. NYCOM fully supports measures that will protect responder safety. However, there needs to be a balanced approach that takes into consideration the realities of each department,” NYCOM wrote on its website.

OSHA’s proposed changes have been published in the Federal Register and have a 90-day comment period that closes on Sunday, July 21.

“The time to act is now. NYCOM is currently working with the Firefighters Association of the State of New York (www.fasny.com), the Association of Fire Districts of the State of New York (www.afdsny.org) and other fire service organizations in a united effort to get the comment period extended to allow for additional time to fully digest and appropriately respond to the proposed rule changes. For more information on this issue, please contact John Mancini, NYCOM Counsel at jmancini@nycom.org,” NYCOM wrote on its website.

Chautauqua County Emergency Services Director Noel Guttman, who is also a volunteer with the Mayville Fire Department, said this new legislation will create a lot of paperwork and expenses. “This new standard is going to make it more difficult for the administration of fire chiefs and the administration of fire departments as whole because they’re increasing a lot of standards that can be very difficult and costly,” he said.

Early estimates say that the average fire department will spend a minimum of $4,500 and require 480 hours on these new standards.

There are other concerns too.

Guttman noted that turnout gear, which costs around $3,000 a set, is recommended to be replaced every 10 years. OSHA wants the turnout gear replaced every 10 years, whether it’s needed or not. “I know some departments around here, they bought some turnout gear for an individual. The guy left the department before he got the gear. The turnout gear has been sitting on a shelf for seven, eight, nine years. Literally it’s brand new but it’s got a date on it. Now they (OSHA) are going to say you can’t wear it,” Guttman said.

Guttman is also concerned that some of the training requirements and physical standards are going to be difficult to meet.

But at the same time, Guttman doesn’t think everything being proposed is bad.

He noted that OSHA wants departments to do “risk assessment” for a fire protection district. That assessment may include things like highlighting bodies of water, specific areas of a community at risk, and developing a plan for coverage.

Guttman said he is planning on submitting a comment on the OSHA plan before Sunday.

The Ripley Hose Co. #1 posted a multi-page letter on its Facebook page, opposing the change. It was signed by President Brooke Smith, Chief Mark Smith, Secretary Mark Dickey, First Assistant Chief Jason Fisher, Treasurer Kathy Ducey, Second Assistant Chief Lisa Babcock and EMS Captain Casey Dickinson.

In the letter,the fire company warns these new regulations have the “potential to impose a chilling effect on our membership drives,” making them “more of an administrative entity than an EMS and fire service provider to the community.”

Ripley Home Company also said it will impact them financially.

“Our 2024 budget of $276,290 is already at the 2% cap imposed by New York state law of our annual budget. We estimate that the proposed rule will at a minimum increase the Fire District’s annual budget by 22% in order to comply with the administrative and operational costs associated with this rule,” they wrote.

Guttman said even though comments are being accepted “this law is going to go through.”

What remains now is how much OSHA is willing to modify their proposal once they review all comments. “We’re going to have to find ways to work with it and contend. But it’s definitely going to impact budgets of every single fire department, to increase standards, gear, training, and membership requirements. It will have a national impact on fire departments,” he said.

But even though this will impact budgets, Guttman believes there are some positives. “All of it is not necessarily bad. Doing things that are safety oriented are not bad. It’s just some of it is going to be difficult for departments to manage, maintain and get behind,” he said.

He suspects any changes will take a couple of years before having to be implemented.

In addition, Guttman said the Chautauqua County Fire Advisory Board has established a “working group” to try and help departments in getting the information about this out and how we can work as a group to implement these changes.