Madison Jefferson Fire Department

Lisle Dill

Narrative Statement

The Madison Jefferson Fire Department proposes this Assistance to Firefighters grant project to fully upgrade all Madison Jefferson Fire Department firefighters personal protective equipment to current NFPA standards to maximize safety and health of the firefighters with improved protection from heat, toxic atmospheres , blood borne pathogens ,and the physical challenges of punctures, impacts and cuts .Preventing health problems and injury incidents is as important as the treatment after an incident and is beneficial to the department ,to the community and to the volunteer firefighters. The firefighters, with this equipment and the related training to properly utilize it, as a result, will be able to operate at emergency scenes in a manner following applicable NFPA standards while minimizing the detrimental health effects of heavy weight gear and equipment on the firefighters as they accomplish their tasks, in structural fire attack, rescue operations and wild land fire situations.

The Madison Jefferson Fire Department is situated in southeast Ohio's Jackson County, part of the Appalachian Region. The all volunteer department of 34 active members is located several miles from any other fire department and operates in 78 sq miles of over 50% forested rolling to steep rural countryside of southern Jackson county . Head quartered in a small village of 1850 people, the department faces the challenges of structure fire control in a small commercial district, an assisted living facility, school buildings, small apartment complexes, several small manufacturing facilities, along with several hundred rural residences and wildland firefighting. All mutual aid fire departments are 15 to 30 minutes away and the Ohio DNR forestry crews are 45 minutes or more away. Only about 3 % of the primary coverage area has hydrant water supply and the department has striven to provide maximum fire control water supply with its 2 pumper / 2 large tanker / water supply pumper fire ground attacks. The department currently is building several dry hydrants with a small Forestry Service matching grant. The 5700 residents of the fire district are solid supporters of the department through a tax levy on real estate , but the district includes several thousand acres of state wildlife preserve land that are not taxed and other land values do not produce large amounts of funds . After basic funding needs of the department, including capital payments, are met between $7,000 -$10,000 annually is available for equipment acquisition of all kinds. While this is a reasonable sum , the large upgrade project proposed in this award application could not take place without a long term loan and resulting future restrictions on acquisition of other needed equipment and without the grant ,a continued replacement as needed program that would require 5 to 7 years to get to a 2002 standards level . The required project matching funds will be provided from this year’s budget by appropriating some reserve funds into the current equipment purchase budget. The department members respond to calls from both work and home and pride themselves on having first out units responding in under 4 minutes average time. Members respond both directly to the scene and from the fire station, thus many members carry their PPE gear with them. In addition, the department provides mutual aid to surrounding fire departments several times a year with both manpower and equipment for both wild land and structure fires and has an automatic call agreement with a small village fire department 8 miles east of the MJFD. These mutual aid departments cover an additional 132 sq miles of area. All equipment as practical is available to the mutual aid departments by request. While the department's goal is to provide best possible gear and equipment for each firefighter , budget limitations have required a gradual acquisition of the PPE items over a period of years with the results being a substantial variation in age and level of qualification of the equipment with many components being 10,15 , 20 years old. To accomplish this leap forward, the project will address five main areas of personal protection equipment and gear.

They are:

Part One -- equipping all first alarm structure fire call units (2 pumpers and 2 tankers) with current NFPA standard SCBA by purchasing 12 SCBA meeting the NFPA 1981 -2002 edition standard that will include heads up air pressure displays, redundant alarms, connections for RIT intervention rescue air, and integrated automatic PASS units with lightweight composite cylinders operating at 3000 psi. These units will also be NIOSH qualified for use in biological hazard situations. Also included is the purchasing of 12 spare air cylinders for these units .One of the biggest challenges at all structure fires is to protect fire personnel from noxious and toxic smoke and gases and SCBA is the only 100% total answer. Increasingly other emergency situations produce IDLH atmospheres that require SCBA .The standards for SCBA have been raised substantially in the past few years for increased user safety but none of the departments current units meet NFPA 1981-2002ed standards and several not even the two prior standards. The new 3000 psi units will give a considerable increase in useable air to a true 30 minutes per cylinder and substantial increase in time for firefighters to safely exit dangerous atmospheres if need be without any increase in unit weight . While some may argue for 45 minute or more cylinders, those units are considerably heavier and more bulky. Also, a firefighter using up a 30 minute cylinder requires them to return for a second cylinder for prolonged attacks, allowing the firefighter to be evaluated for physical problems that might be showing up that will require re-hab time. The department averages a 14 firefighter response to all structure fire calls, responding with a minimum of two engines and two tankers on first alarm. To meet NFPA guidelines, ISO qualifications and OSHA rules, including two in-two out, each engine is equipped with 4 SCBA and each tanker with two SCBA, thus the request for 12 SCBA units. The extra cylinders will allow for one spare cylinder for each SCBA unit to be available as per guidelines. Current spare cylinders are a mixture of types and ages with several early fiberglass composite cylinders nearing their end of service date and all cylinders currently operate at 2216 psi. With this projects completion, all of these SCBA will be the lightest, safest units available providing maximum firefighter safety and efficiency for Madison Jefferson firefighters. The department has in place a regular maintenance and flow testing contract program using BioSystems Pos-i-Chek equipment for the current SCBA and , due to the units ages , many costly parts have been needed annually to keep the units operating safely .The cost of maintenance for these new units will be much lower for several years to come. These new SCBA will replace units 12, 15, and 17 years old that are heavy and without any redundant alarm or integrated PASS, thus firefighters using these older units have higher risk of heat stress, back and leg injury, or of low air conditions during their use .The prevention of just one heat stress related incident requiring hospital care of a firefighter is worth the extra expense of these newest lightweight SCBA. In addition, the integrated PASS units will assure the incident commander of a substantially higher level of safety and accountability for all firefighters using SCBA at structure fire incidents and any other incident involving deadly atmospheres. The MMR type SCBA will provide easier to use emergency air connections and easy face piece regulator substitution not available on the current SCBA.

Part 2-- As part of the departmental equipment upgrade, there is need for the replacement of the current SCBA cylinder fill station to a unit meeting NFPA 1500 and 1901 standards level 2 full containment qualifications operating at 3000 psi. The department will use this system along with their compressor to fill the SCBA cylinders used by firefighters both in training and during emergency operations and also for nearby departments On average, over sixty cylinders are refilled yearly. This new unit would totally confine any explosive rupture of cylinders along with giving full control of the fill process from a safe location .The present equipment is no longer recognized as a fill station by NFPA 1901 standards and operates at 2216 psi. The department’s current compressor system will be reconfigured for 3000 psi fills for the new units.

Part 3-- equipping all active firefighters with their personal SCBA face piece. To maximize health protection for each firefighter and to assure proper individual fit, the Madison Jefferson Fire Department project includes the purchase of 22 additional SCBA face pieces for the 12 SCBA units -thus providing an individual face piece for each active firefighter. Given the variation of facial sizes, the requirements of many for corrective lens to properly see, and also, not knowing which firefighters will be responding to any call , the potential health problems of shared units, individual face pieces custom sized and equipped as needed to fit the new standard SCBA will eliminate these problems. Use of these individual face pieces will allow the department to better meet OSHA, NIOSH and NFPA standards for respiratory protection While the department SOG's now specify cleaning and sanitizing of masks after any use, the face pieces are one size and lack provisions for eyewear usage and may be used by any firefighter. The department will issue each firefighter a mask bag for the storage of their face piece with their other PPE.

Part 4 -- to purchase a SCBA RIT pack compatible with the new SCBA for use at all structure fires and other incidents involving IDLH atmospheres. The RIT pack contains a lightweight air cylinder , hose connections with quick attach couplings for connecting to high pressure lines of the new design SCBA to trans-fill a SCBA unit low on air, and a high pressure regulator /face piece regulator assembly for use in case of regulator problems on a SCBA all in a compact carrying pack .This equipment will complement the two in --two out attacks by equipping the standby RIT team with a compact emergency air source and regulator available to aid any firefighter injured or trapped by debris and experiencing air supply distress. Combined with equipment already available on the pumpers this RIT pack will fill out RIT team’s equipment needs for full implementation of this operation. This RIT pack will be carried on the first out pumper to insure availability at IDLH situations whether RIT is provided by department members or a mutual aid countywide RIT team plan now being formulated for activation

Part 5--to upgrade to current NFPA standards all boots , turnout sets, helmets, gloves and goggles for use at all types of fire and rescue incidents ,including wildfires , by doing the following

--purchase of 30 pair (currently 4 firefighters have qualifying boots) of NFPA 1971-2000 edition rated 14 in high leather structure fire fighting boots. This will accomplish several goals. Leather boots are qualified under NFPA and OSHA for both structure and wild land fire situations and are substantially lighter and fit better than standard rubber boots which results in less fatigue and lessens the possibility of foot or ankle injury. Boots made to the current NFPA standards afford more heat resistance, better protection from cuts and punctures and better resist BBP for improved health protection. Being good fitting, more flexible and less bulky than rubber firefighter boots, leather boots contribute to safe apparatus operation during emergency responses With acquisition of these boots, all firefighters will be properly outfitted with foot protection for any fire situation. These boots will replace various kinds of boots 5 to 10 yrs old, with various qualifications and most not suitable for wild land fire situations of which several occur regularly for the MJFD.

-- purchasing 30 sets of PBI blend BBP resistant turnout coats and pants with NFPA 1971-2000ed qualifications. These turnouts will enable each active firefighter to have a complete, safe, well fitted structure fire protection set for their use. The newest qualification turnouts have much improved thermal protection along with increased protection from flame and flash over through use of PBI and other resistant fabrics and provide maximum safety to the firefighters along with improved protection against blood borne pathogens found at rescue operations. The new gear would replace various age and various qualification turnout gear now in use. Combined with the 4 sets of gear that are NFPA 1971-2000 qualified that are currently used , all members will have fully qualified turnout sets ,thus allowing for correct sizing and adding the ability of the firefighter to respond with their own PPE thus maximizing the safety of all firefighters at both fire incidents and rescue situations .The department has a gear washer on premises and SOG’s require washing of all dirty gear to control contamination of the turnouts and to maximize their life . The donated machine has helped greatly in keeping the current turnouts in good condition over several years.

-- Purchasing 30 NFPA 1971-2000 ed qualified structure fire helmets to go with 4 recently acquired qualified helmets to provide maximum head protection for all firefighters at structure fires . All members presently have helmets but they are of various ages and thus have varying qualifying labels. A current NFPA rated helmet, properly used, provides substantially improved protection to the fire fighter's head from impacts, falling debris and heat over older helmets. All of the newer designs have much higher impact ratings than previous helmet types , more heat resistance and better fit than most older helmets, thus offering a great improvement in firefighter head safety

-- Purchase of 30 nomex hoods ,30 pair NFPA structure fire fighting gloves , and 34 pairs of NFPA goggles , all meeting NFPA 1971-2000 qualifications. These items will be used with the turnout gear to greatly enhance personal safety through improved face, hand, and head protection and will provide approved eye protection for all situations. Two layer Nomex hoods offer an extra level of head and face protection helping prevent burns and scrapes, and having one for each helmet is needed to maximize the safety effort. The latest qualifying gloves will also provide more hand protection than older gloves to the firefighters during extrication incidents that have potential exposures to blood borne pathogens along with improved cut resistance and improved heat resistance for use at fire scenes. The goggles will replace standard helmet face shields which, while helpful, are not 100 % effective eye protection, do not provide any eye impact protection and tend to distort the firefighters vision field .The department has had 4 incidents in the past 18 months where a firefighter had to be treated for foreign materials in their eyes, even though face shields were in use.

-- Acquiring proper wild land fire protective gear for each active member for use at brush and forest fires. This will involve the purchase of 26 pairs of NFPA 1977-1998 ed rated coveralls , 24 wild land fire helmets , and 34 pair wild land fire gloves , all to supplement the small amount of rated equipment now available , all new gear to meet NFPA and OSHA standards for wildland firefighting . Structure fire fighting gear is too heavy, very bulky, and produces excessive heat stress and fatigue if used in forest fire situations. Also, use of it on wild land fires causes’ considerable physical damage to the gear from snags, tears, and abrasion. Rips and tears in structure turnouts are expensive to repair and the mechanical damage to the outer fabric causes replacement to be needed much quicker. As a result, many times fire crew members would not have proper PPE while attacking these fires. The wild land helmets, gloves and coveralls provide essential protection with much less heat stress and fatigue to the firefighters. Combined with the goggles and leather boots, this gear will outfit the firefighters for safe wild land fire operations .This new acquisition will bring the department into full compliance with Ohio Industrial Commission rules with NFPA qualified wild land fire fighting gear for all members as all members of the department are wild land fire fighting certified by the state of Ohio.

The Madison Jefferson Fire Department believes that the completion of this firefighter personal protective equipment upgrade project, along with the continued training in the use of the new equipment, will be a very worthwhile investment in the community served by the MJFD and will maximize personal protection for the members of the MJFD and will maximize the safety and health of the MJFD firefighters as they face the challenges of both structure and wild land fire fighting and rescue operations wherever needed in rural southern Ohio.

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