OSHA’s “Fire Brigades Standard” for general industry was issued in 1980, back when the term “fire brigade” (an organized body of people trained and employed to extinguish fires) was more in common use. The fire brigades standard applies to “fire brigades, industrial fire departments and private or contractual type fire departments.” The standard imposes training, personal protective equipment, and firefighting equipment requirements on these entities.
The scope of the fire brigades standard is limited. The standard’s personal protective equipment apply only to fire brigade members who perform interior structural fighting. The standard is notable as much for who it leaves out as who it regulates; the standard does not apply to airport crash rescue or forest firefighting operations.
Recently, OSHA issued a proposed rule, the emergency responses standard, to apply the fire brigade standard’s training and equipment requirements to other groups involved in providing emergency services. These groups include firefighters, emergency medical services, tactical rescue teams, and the equivalent services offered in workplaces by employer-provided (e.g., private) services.
The proposed emergency responses standard is discussed below.
What Does the Proposed Emergency Responses Standard Require?
The proposed emergency responses standard aims to provide basic workplace protections for workers who provide emergency response, emergency medical service, and technical search and rescue service, as part of their regularly assigned job duties.
The proposed rule contains standards to regulate a broad range of hazards faced by emergency responders during emergency response activities. The emergency responses standard would bring OSHA emergency response regulations in line with the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) National Response Framework. The emergency responses standard would also modify OSHA emergency response regulations to align with current industry consensus standards issued by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) on the safe conduct of emergency response activities.
The standard seeks to modify existing standards to bring emergency responders within their scope. These standards include:
- Section 1910.120 Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response
- Section 1910.134 Respiratory Protection
- Section 1910.156 Emergency Response
- Section 1910.157 Portable Fire Extinguishers
- Section 1910.158 Standpipe Hose Systems
- Section 1910.159 Automatic Sprinkler Systems
What is the Status of the Proposed Emergency Responses Standard?
After a federal agency issues a proposed rule, the agency then seeks public comment on the rule from the public. Stakeholders – people and businesses who have a stake in the rule’s being implemented – then provide comments on why they believe the standard should (or should not) be implemented.
Stakeholders have provided significant feedback since OSHA issued the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) for the Emergency Responses Standard on February 5, 2024. The ninety-day public comment period was to end on May 6, 2024. Stakeholders requested an extension of the comment period, noting they needed additional information to review the rule. OSHA, therefore extended the public comment period to June 21, 2024 – a 45 day extension. In response to additional extension requests from stakeholders, OSHA again extended the comment period, to July 22, 2024. The comment period is now over.
OSHA has scheduled a virtual Informal public hearing on the proposed emergency responses standard. During the hearing, OSHA may collect additional information from stakeholders, and may help stakeholders get a better understanding of the proposed rule. The hearing begins on November 12, 2024, at 9:30 AM ET, and if necessary will continue from 9:30 AM until 4:30 PM on subsequent weekdays.
After the public hearing, OSHA will evaluate the comments it receives from that hearing, along with the comments it received previously, and decide whether to finalize the proposed standard. OSHA may choose to finalize the standard in its current proposed form, or it may decide to issue a final standard (“Final Rule”) with new or different regulatory language. Alternatively, and depending upon the type of feedback it seeks and other regulatory priorities that may develop, OSHA may decide to not pursue further efforts to finalize the rule.
How to Use The Guard to Meet Emergency Response Obligations
Compliancy Group’s OSHA for Medical Practices and OSHA for Dental Practices workplace safety solution provide policies and procedures, self-audit controls, and templated plans for the standards most commonly required of medical practices: The Emergency Action Plan standard, the Fire Prevention Plan standard, and the Personal Protective Equipment standard. The Guard content for each of these standards provides guidance to practices that can be used to determine and implement what measures are required to ensure timely and effective responses to various emergencies.
