Keeping It Safe Robert Tutterow
Is it time for a National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standard on fire stations? Let me be a bit more specific. I’m only talking about the health and safety aspects of the station, not the building code requirements per se.
I fully understand that many in the fire service think that the NFPA restricts the freedoms of fire departments and firefighters to do what they think is best. Those of us who were around with the advent of NFPA 1500, Standard on Fire Department Occupational Safety, Health, and Wellness Program, vividly recall the antiNFPA sentiment from many. There was the thought that NFPA 1500 was going to put fire departments out of business. Thirty-six years later, I have yet to hear of that happening even once.
While not often discussed, there are already a few requirements within NFPA standards concerning fire station health and safety. NFPA 1500 has long had a chapter on facilities. However, it must be noted that the scope of the standard states: “This standard shall contain minimum requirements for a fire service-related occupational safety and health program.” There is nothing about how a fire station should be designed. To put this in context, there are also chapters in NFPA 1500 about apparatus, but there are no design requirements. One must go to NFPA 1900, Standard for Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting Vehicles, Automotive Fire Apparatus, Wildland Fire Apparatus, and Automotive Ambulances (formerly NFPA 1901, Standard for Automotive Fire Apparatus), to get the design requirements. And, there is an NFPA 1500 chapter on personal protective equipment (PPE), but one must go to NFPA 1971, Standard on Protective Ensembles for Structural Fire Fighting and Proximity Fire Fighting [soon to be NFPA 1970, Standard on Protective Ensembles for Structural and Proximity Firefighting, Work Apparel and Open-Circuit Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) for Emergency Services, and Personal Alert Safety Systems (PASS)], for the design requirements and to NFPA 1851, Standard on Selection, Care, and Maintenance of Protective Ensembles for Structural Fire Fighting and Proximity Fire Fighting, for the selection, care, and maintenance requirements.
Furthermore, there will be fire station requirements in the new soon-to-be-released NFPA 1585, Standard for Exposure and Contamination Control. The scope of this standard states, “This standard shall contain minimum requirements for an exposure and contamination control program for emergency services incident scene operations and training.” The operative word in both NFPA 1500 and NFPA 1585 is “program,” not design.
What might be the areas that a new standard might address? The emergence of contamination has certainly brought the design of a fire station into focus. As architect Paul Erickson of FGM Architects so aptly states, “Firefighters are harvesters of carcinogens.” Farmers harvest their crops by bringing their product from the field, placing it in or on their equipment, and taking it to the barn for further distribution. Likewise, firefighters respond to a fire, collect carcinogens (and other contaminants), place them in or on the fire truck, and bring them back to the station for further distribution.
There are practices fire departments are implementing to help minimize the “size of the crop,” so to speak, but there are also critical fire station design features that are required to successfully mitigate exposure to hazardous substances. The design features include the following:
- Areas for cleaning PPE and equipment.
- Equipment needed to clean and dry PPE and equipment.
- Requirements for cleaning areas.
- Storage requirements (especially for PPE).
- Transition areas for showering immediately following a fire call.
There are many other areas of firefighter health and safety that are often overlooked and must be addressed. As a safety officer for a metro fire department for 24 years, I saw every personal injury report generated during that span. I was amazed at the number of reports that stemmed from incidents at stations. Thankfully, most of these were minor, but there were some very significant ones. The most expensive and debilitating injury that occurred during this 24-year period occurred at a fire station. It involved a slide pole and a civilian employee. There are those who will discount this injury because of that, but it was still an injury to an employee in a fire station.
We need minimum station requirements to improve health and safety. Of all the architects in the country, there are only a very few who have knowledge and experience on how to design a station with the health and safety of the firefighters in mind. Areas often overlooked include nonslip flooring, alarm notification systems (sound and lighting—especially in sleeping areas), proper storage areas, kitchens designed for sanitation, overall foot traffic flow, proper fitness room features, easy-to-clean surfaces, holistic designs for mental and behavioral health, and on and on.
An NFPA standard on fire station health and safety could be not only for new fire stations but for major renovations. The full impact of the standard would take decades as older stations are replaced with newer or renovated stations. But, there must be a starting place.
ROBERT TUTTEROW retired as safety coordinator for the Charlotte (NC) Fire Department and is a member of the Fire Apparatus & Emergency Equipment Editorial Advisory Board. His 44-year career includes 10 as a volunteer. He has been very active in the National Fire Protection Association through service on the Fire Service Section Executive Board and technical committees involved with safety, apparatus, and personal protective equipment. He is a founding member and president of the Fire Industry Education Resource Organization (F.I.E.R.O.).
