NFPA Journal - July/August 2017 - 34

SHRINKING RESOURCES,

GROWING CONCERN

the fire service to protect. During a roundtable discussion on
this topic at the symposium, chicken coop fires in particular
emerge as a concern. Even if heat lamps, which are needed
in coops in areas with cold winters, are kept at a safe distance from combustible materials like hay, there's no telling
how a live animal can change that. "A spastic chicken can
make hay fly everywhere," says Sue Scott of the Wilsall, Montana, Fire Department.
If a fire or other emergency does occur on a farm, getting
people and animals to evacuate the area becomes a challenge
in its own right. "Every animal wants to go back in [to the
barn]," says Stephen Sadowski of the North Stonington, Connecticut, Volunteer Fire Company. "Farmers want to go back
in for their new, $100,000 tractor. We have to say, 'No way.'"

Wildfire challenge
Coco Kelly, a firefighter with Central Calaveras Fire and
Rescue in California, has been part of the fire service for just
a year; she joined after losing her home in the 2015 Butte
Fire, a massive wildfire that destroyed 500 structures in her
department's district alone.
Calaveras County is in what's known as the state responsibility area, where the California Department of Forestry
and Fire Protection, or CAL FIRE, is the primary responder
to fires-many of them wildfires. But during a discussion
on wildfire at the symposium, Kelly says that's not always
the case. In the winter, for instance, CAL FIRE shuts down
some of its stations, she says, leaving Central Calaveras Fire
largely responsible for conducting its own wildland firefighting. Even when CAL FIRE's stations are up and running,
Kelly says it doesn't take the responsibility away from her

department to respond to wildfires, which make up about
98 percent of the fires in Central Calaveras. "We either beat
[CAL FIRE] there, or we get there at the same time," she
says. "We work really closely with our local [CAL FIRE district], but there are still issues."
Overall, the idea that state or federal fire services are
the primary line of defense against wildfires is a misnomer. According to a 2013 NFPA report on wildfires, local
departments in the U.S. responded to an average of 334,200
wildfires each year from 2007 to 2011. And with their vast
stretches of grasslands, woods, swamps, and chaparral, rural
communities often bear the brunt of that wildfire activity.
An NFPA report released in March, which analyzed fire
departments' wildfire preparedness, showed equipment and
PPE deficiencies in rural departments that fight wildfires.
"What tends to happen is when you have all the structural
equipment then you don't have the ability to go off road, you
don't carry all the tools you need for wildland [firefighting],"
a chief from the rural western U.S. told researchers for the
report. Another chief from the rural South said some volunteer firefighters in his county try to fight wildfires wearing
structural PPE, "which creates some real issues." The Fourth
Needs Assessment Survey of the fire service also showed a lack
of wildland firefighting training among rural departments.
Seventy-seven percent of departments protecting communities
of fewer than 2,500 people did not train all their personnel
in wildland firefighting, according to the survey. By contrast,
only 23 percent of departments protecting communities of
500,000 people didn't train all their personnel.
Since 2002, NFPA has promoted wildfire preparedness
through Firewise, an education-based program that stresses

MAKING NFPA WORK FOR YOU

How rural departments can adopt and adapt NFPA codes and standards
WHEN JOE MARUCA, fire chief
in West Barnstable, Massachusetts, a Cape Cod town of 3,500
people, got up in front of a
crowd of about 40 volunteer fire
chiefs from New England at a
National Volunteer Fire Council
conference in New Hampshire
in March, he pulled no punches
in explaining that the prevailing perception of NFPA within
the rural fire service is that
it's disconnected from reality.
"The people who write these
staandards don't have a clue
what goes on in small-town New
England," Maruca said. "Do you
agree with me on that?" Attendees did, expressing it through a
series of muttered yeahs.
At that point, Ken Willette,
first responder segment director at NFPA, interjected. He

asked the crowd if any of them
had ever served on an NFPA
technical committee. A handful
of people raised their hands.
"While the perception may be
that your voice isn't heard on
technical committees, I assure
you, you do have representation," Willette said.
The problem, Maruca
explained, is when rural departments look at an NFPA standard
and think they have to either
follow it verbatim or not follow it
all. In reality, the standards are
meant to be adjusted to reflect
the communities where they're
used. "There's nothing that says
we can't adopt [a standard] and
amend it based on local needs,"
Maruca said.
That's precisely what his
department has done. In West

34 | NFPA JOURNAL * J U L Y /A U G U S T 2 0 1 7

Barnstable, there's a seaside
stretch of town that six firefighters can't conceivably get to in
14 minutes or less-as required
by NFPA 1720, Organization and
Deployment of Fire Suppression
Operations, Emergency Medical
Operations and Special Operations to the Public by Volunteer
Fire Departments. So, while
adopting NFPA 1720, the department has at the same time
made the community aware
that response times for that
area will lag behind the standard by about two minutes. To
account for the delay, an engine
from a nearby community also
responds to calls from that area.
Similarly, although NFPA
1582, Comprehensive Occupational Medical Program for Fire
Departments, requires annual

physical exams for firefighters,
Maruca requires his firefighters
to get a physical every other
year. Given the community's
low number of structure fires-
when Maruca spoke in March,
it had been nearly three years
since its last-the amended
requirement doesn't put West
Barnstable firefighters at
unusually high risk compared
to urban firefighters who might
get physicals every year but are
also exposed to far more toxins.
"It's about risk management,"
Maruca said. -A.V.
For online information on any
NFPA code or standard, type in
its number after nfpa.org/.
For example, information on
NFPA 101®, Life Safety Code®,
can be found at nfpa.org/101.

http://www.nfpa.org/ http://www.nfpa.org/101

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - July/August 2017