Cooper County Fire Protection District says proposed OSHA changes could take away staffing and service

BOONVILLE, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Cooper County Fire Protection District is worried about how proposed changes to OSHA guidelines could affect its operations.

The proposed rule changes would replace the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's existing Fire Brigades standard, which has had barely any changes since 1980. Changes would expand the rules to increase safety measures for people who respond to emergencies, including volunteer firefighters.

CCFPD is composed entirely of volunteers and operates on an annual budget of $400,000 from property sales tax. Lt. William Johnson said if these changes go into effect, the fire district would have to increase its annual budget to at least $2.4 million, with an initial cost of around $40 million to meet necessary requirements.

"We'd have to pass the cost off to the community, we don't have a choice," Johnson said. "Either that, or shut down the fire district."

Johnson said the department either have to recruit more firefighters or cease to provide services for the next three-to-five years while volunteers undergo new, required training. The fire district is made up of 28 volunteer firefighters, and Johnson claims the new guidelines would require an amount of training that would be equivalent in hours to getting a PhD.

He said this will make it difficult to recruit volunteer firefighters and cause more lag time from when a volunteer starts to when they actually complete their training and can serve residents.

"They have other jobs, some people are retired, so it's kind of hard to leave farming, being an attorney or an accountant or a plumber or a mechanic, something like that, and just go be a firefighter full time," Johnson said. "It would impact their families and impact the community, so I think we would lose the bulk of our volunteer firefighters."

Along with staffing, equipment will also be affected. Machines, including fire engines, will be subject to manufacturer standards, regardless of the current condition of the vehicle. Chief David Gehm said there is one fire truck that only has 6,600 miles, but it would be out of commission due to it being 16 years old.

Along with that truck, Johnson said five or six other apparatuses would also have to be replaced, which would cost millions of dollars and likely take years to get. Johnson said every piece of equipment would have to be maintained to the manufacturer's standards to keep a piece of equipment in service.

"Any time there needs to be an oil change or a pump seal goes bad or anything like that, we'd have to take it out of service until that's filled, maintained, repalced or serviced, which means that we would lose that apparatus," Johnson said. "By losing that apparatus, we wouldn't be able to provide those types of services to the community."

In a statement, an OSHA spokesperson said Friday it is their goal to improve safety, and they are looking to learn more about this proposal's impact on emergency organizations across the country.

A spokesperson said, "It is not OSHA’s intent to finalize a rule that undermines public safety of any community. We have taken steps during the rulemaking process to consider the economic impact on fire departments across the country."

That public comment period is open until July 22, and Johnson encourages people to reach out to lawmakers and leave comments on OSHA's website expressing any concerns.

"We wouldn't be able to provide hardly any services, so it'd be up to the individual to provide their own fire, rescue and other services that they would normally rely upon for public safety and security," Johnson said.

Public sector employees in Missouri aren't covered by federal OSHA, but CCFPD says it is still subject to federal OSHA guidelines and believe if these changes are passed, this will also become the new standard under the National Fire Protection Association.

Meanwhile, Gale Blomenkamp with the Boone County Fire Protection District said he is not worried about the proposed changes. He said since fire districts in Missouri are not bound by OSHA, there will be no direct effect on their fire district.

"We are very fortunate to have very good equipment and stuff out there," Blomenkamp said. "So, I can see where organizations are concerned, but as of right now, the Boone County Fire District is not too worried about it."