NOK-NOI RICKER
Bangor Daily News

Federal rules that require firefighters who enter burning buildings to do so with a partner while two other firefighters are outside to rescue them if anything goes wrong are nearly a decade old now, and area fire chiefs say the requirement has saved lives.

"People had to die for the rules to change," Etna Fire Chief Walter Gibbons, a 20-year veteran firefighter, said recently. "There was a lot of loss of life because of lack of crews. It provides some protections for [firefighters] who risk their lives."

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration mandate, dubbed the "two-in two-out law," requires firefighters who enter a burning building to do so in pairs wearing self-contained breathing apparatus, or SCBAs, and that another team of two firefighters track them to ensure they are safe.

The rules can be disregarded if a resident is believed to be inside a burning house.

"If there is somebody trapped or somebody inside [the burning building], you don't have to adhere to the two-in two-out," Brewer Fire Chief Gary Parent said.

Small volunteer departments in Maine had to make major changes in how they handle burning buildings and training when the two-in two-out rules went into effect, but little changed for other, larger departments such as Bangor and Brewer.

"We now try to maintain larger staffs to do the two-in two-out," said Parent. "It always comes down to life safety. If there is a life safety issue, you don't have to sit there and wait. The OSHA rules protect life safety of those you're trying to get out, and life safety of those responding."

Larger, full-time departments typically have SCBA-qualified firefighters serving around the clock.

For smaller departments, which once were filled with untrained volunteers, it has meant a lot more certified firefighter training and, in turn, fewer numbers willing to undertake all the classroom work, said Jim Ellis, who serves as fire chief in the small towns of Holden and Eddington. Each town has around 25 mostly volunteer firefighters, with 10 or 12 who actively respond to fire calls, he said.

"It's a huge time commitment to be a member of a department," Ellis said. Another downside "is it's an added financial burden to the fire departments. But you can't put a price tag on a firefighter."

Even with the added expense, "I think it has made firefighting safer and caused us to look at other methods for firefighting attacks," he said. "We don't have the luxury of a full engine company, which is part of the reason Holden and Eddington work together. We need manpower from each department."

With fewer certified firefighters on rural volunteer lists, abiding by the two-in two-out rules are sometimes difficult, Passadumkeag Fire Chief Brent Faloon said.

"When you get a call in beautiful downtown Passadumkeag, if you get three people there you're doing good," he said. "It's the same thing in Greenbush and Olamon.

"Thank the Lord for mutual aid," said Faloon, adding that he thinks the rules go far to protect his fire crews.

The revised OSHA standard became federal law on April 8, 1998. But most states, including Maine, were given time to implement and enforce the new regulations. Maine's rules went into effect on Oct. 1, 2000.

When the updated law was first introduced, local firefighters worried that blazes would destroy buildings before they got a chance to attack them, Ellis said.

"The concern initially was that firefighters would have to wait outside and that fires would grow and the property would be lost," he said. So far, "I haven't seen that in our little corner of the world."

Each small fire department "has to do a lot more with a lot less," said Gibbons, who also serves as a firefighter in Plymouth.

"We're all having issues of manpower," he said. When fewer than four qualified firefighters show up at a fire scene, "we try to do everything we can from the outside. When the team gets there, we launch an interior attack."

By law, the two firefighters inside the burning building must be wearing SCBAs and be able to see each other at all times and communicate without having to rely on radios.

The two-out provision of the law, which already required standby personnel whenever respirators were in use, basically requires the team outside to have the training and equipment needed to assist or rescue the firefighters inside. One of the outside firefighters must track the interior personnel, but the other designated person is allowed to assume other roles, such as incident commander.

"Too many firefighters have died because of insufficient accountability and poor communications," the International Association of Fire Fighters' website states. "The [OSHA] standard addresses both and leaves no doubt that two-in/two-out requirements must be followed for fire fighter safety."

Congress created OSHA in 1970 to produce rules and standards to protect the health and safety of all workers in the United States, the agency's website states.

While local fire officials say firefighting is safer as a result of the updated OSHA rules, the numbers kept by the National Fire Protection Association's annual Firefighter Fatality Report show the numbers have changed little. An average of 98 firefighters died annually in the United States during the 1990s and 2000s, NFPA data show.

However, "the Hometown Heroes Survivors Benefit Act of 2003 has resulted in an approximate 10 percent increase to the total number of firefighter fatalities counted," the U.S. Fire Association website states.

The Hometown Heroes law gives survivor benefits to those who had heart attacks or strokes while on duty, or who became ill within 24 hours of strenuous service. The annual NFPA data also do not include those who died as a result of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The decade-old law "protects responders," Parent said. "Firefighters have always had the mindset to get there quick and get it done quick. They support two-in two-out because it protects them."

Related

Maine firefighters laud federal ‘two-in two-out’ rule as a lifesaver

Copyright 2010 Bangor Daily News
August 24, 2010