NVFC Establishes Volunteer Firefighter Health and Safety Priorities to Keep First Responders at their B.E.S.T.

 

The health and safety of our nation’s volunteer fire service is a primary concern for the National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC). Each year, first responders are killed or injured due to factors that could have been avoided with the proper safety and health precautions. To help keep firefighters and emergency personnel strong and prevent tragedies, the NVFC has released a series of health and safety priorities to more effectively address the critical health and safety issues impacting the volunteer fire service.

 

The NVFC has always been active in promoting and implementing initiatives to keep first responders healthy and safe. This includes launching the Heart-Healthy Firefighter Program in 2003 to proactively combat the leading cause of line-of-duty firefighter deaths – heart attack. In addition, the NVFC teamed up with the United States Fire Administration to address the second leading cause of firefighter fatalities with the Emergency Vehicle Safe Operations for Volunteer and Small Combination Emergency Service Organizations program.

 

Building on these and other efforts to protect first responders, the NVFC Board of Directors established a Health and Safety Committee in the spring of 2008 to further the NVFC’s initiatives in the areas of health and safety. The Committee produced the Volunteer Firefighter Health and Safety Priorities to provide departments with guidance on key issues that need to be addressed in order to keep department members safe and eliminate cases of preventable injury and death.

 

The Volunteer Firefighter Health and Safety Priorities are set forth in a series of B.E.S.T. practices for the volunteer fire and emergency services, divided into four main focus areas. The priorities are as follows:

 

Behavior

• Support the physical, emotional, and mental well-being of all personnel.
• Operate all emergency apparatus and privately owned vehicles to conform to the highest road safety standards and enforce the use of seatbelts.
• Develop, practice, and enforce recommended health and safety standards for all personnel.
• Monitor and ensure that all active emergency scenes maintain the utmost level of safety and fireground accountability.

Equipment

• Provide and require the proper use of full personal protective equipment.
• Maintain all equipment based on established safety recommendations.

Standards

• Encourage the use of all smoke, fire detection, and fire suppression devices, including fire sprinkler systems, in all structures.
• Vigorously enforce all fire safety codes and ordinances.
• Obtain apparatus and equipment that meet national safety standards.

Training

• Utilize fire training programs that conform to the highest professional standards.
• Operate a safe fire training ground at all times.
• Establish, maintain, and deliver fire safety programs for all age groups.

 

These priorities will guide the direction of the NVFC’s initiatives to keep first responders safe and healthy. The NVFC highly encourages departments to adopt and adhere to the B.E.S.T. Practices to protect their personnel from harm.

 

In June 2009, the NVFC conducted a national mailing, with the support of Provident Agency, to distribute posters with the Volunteer Firefighter Health and Safety Priorities to every department in the country. Departments should hang the poster up at the station to keep the priorities in the minds of their personnel and serve as a constant reminder of the B.E.S.T. practices they should be following to keep their members safe. Departments can also download the poster at www.nvfc.org/health_safety or order additional hard copies from the NVFC office at 1-888-ASK-NVFC (275-6832) or nvfcoffice@nvfc.org.

 

Further information and resources on each of the priority focus areas are available at www.nvfc.org/health_safety. In the coming months, the NVFC will also be releasing a series of articles that further explores each of the points in the B.E.S.T. practices.

 

The health and safety of our nation’s first responders is too important to ignore. Join the NVFC in promoting and adopting the Volunteer Firefighter Health and Safety Priorities so that every member of the fire service can be at their B.E.S.T.

                                                                                                                 

                                                 UPDATE 

                                           January 28 2012        

                                                                             APPLICATION TO BE AFG PEER REVIEWER NOW ON LINE

 

The application for people to become entered into a pre-approved pool of candidates for AFG/SAFER/FP&S peer review is now posted online. You can access it by going to https://nvfc.wufoo.com/forms/afgsaferfps-peer-reviewer-application/. If you are interested in potentially serving as a peer reviewer for one or more of the grant programs please fill out the application

The application is open to anyone. The way that it works is that once someone fills out the application they get an automatic reply indicating that someone from NVFC will be in touch with them within 10 business days to let them know the status of their application. At the same time that the auto-reply goes out, the NVFC office receives an e-mail with all of the information submitted. They will forward that on to the Board member(s) from the state that the applicant is from to review and approve or reject.

Applicants must submit certain information about themselves but the office made it optional to submit a resume and/or cover letter.

When the office receive's a request to serve as a peer reviewer representing NVFC the office will provide people with a link to the application. Beyond that the office will leave it up to me to publicize this to whatever degree I think is appropriate within our state. Keep in mind that depending on the grant program and fiscal year we generally are only able to place 12-36 people on peer review panels. This means that we probably won’t be able to place more than one or two people per state on each panel (which translates into 3-6 people per year, since there are three grant programs).

 

 

 

 

About the National Volunteer Fire Council

The National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC) is the leading nonprofit membership association representing the interests of the volunteer fire, emergency medical, and rescue services. The NVFC serves as the voice of the volunteer in the national arena and provides invaluable tools, resources, programs, and advocacy for first responders across the nation. Learn more at www.nvfc.org.