OSHA’s Emergency Response Standard Update Threatens Volunteer Fire Departments

On December 21, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced that it will issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to modernize the agency’s ‘Fire Brigades’ standard. This standard was first published and last updated in 1980.This proposed updated standard would issue several new requirements that would be very burdensome, and in many cases impossible, for volunteer fire departments to comply with. Specifically, there would be proh