Fire truck law alarming firefighters
Commercial license needed to return equipment to firehouse

By JORDAN CARLEO-EVANGELIST, Staff writer
First published in print: Friday, February 20, 2009

ALBANY — Firefighters across the state are roaring for the repeal of a little-understood section of vehicle and traffic law that allows them to drive their fire trucks to the scene of an emergency — but not drive them back unless they have a commercial driver's license.

The implications of the law went virtually unrealized for four years. In theory, hundreds or even thousands of firefighters are unwittingly breaking it every day.

"Not only can't we drive the truck back, we can't train the guy to drive to the emergency," said Thomas LaBelle, executive director of the New York State Association of Fire Chiefs, one of several statewide groups lobbying for an immediate change.

"The St. Patrick's Day Parade is going to look a little different without any fire trucks in it," he added.

Most firefighters — paid as well as volunteer — don't have commercial licenses because the fire service was for years exempted from CDL requirements.

But in 2005, in response to what LaBelle described as a tighter federal highway standards, the state Legislature amended the exemption to include only "emergency operation."

Lawyers for fire departments and their interest groups have interpreted that to mean that firefighters without CDLs cannot legally drive the trucks any other time.

The concern is if a returning fire truck driver is involved in an accident, the operator will be considered driving out of class, which could affect liability, LaBelle said.

"We have this technically absurd situation where a volunteer firefighter could drive a fire truck on an emergency basis to a fire but, under the strictest interpretation of the law, they couldn't drive it back to the firehouse because it's not an emergency," said state Sen. Brian X. Foley, D-Brookhaven.

The issue came to light after it was raised late last year by fire officials in Foley's Suffolk County district. Foley has introduced a bill that would restore the full exemption.

Albany County Legislator Carl Zeilman, a volunteer firefighter in Colonie, says he will call on county attorneys and the sheriff's department to counsel local fire crews on the meaning and implications of the law.

Albany Fire Department Chief Robert Forezzi Sr. said training all 239 of his members and pay for them to obtain their CDLs would be costly, and could raise labor issues.

Jennifer Donovan, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Motor Vehicles, noted language restoring non-CDL-licensed firefighters' ability to return equipment is included in Gov. David Paterson's budget plan.

"If all the fire departments actually shut down today, there would be immediate action," said LaBelle, whose organization recently issued a statewide bulletin raising the alarm. "But we're not going to do that. That's not who we are."

Jordan Carleo-Evangelist can be reached at 454-5445 or jcarleo-evangelist@timesunion.com.