<DOC>
[110th Congress House Hearings]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access]
[DOCID: f:37985.wais]
THE UNITED STATES FIRE
ADMINISTRATION REAUTHORIZATION:
ADDRESSING THE PRIORITIES
OF THE NATION'S FIRE SERVICE
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION
COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
OCTOBER 2, 2007
__________
Serial No. 110-59
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Science and Technology
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.house.gov/science
U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
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______
COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
HON. BART GORDON, Tennessee, Chairman
JERRY F. COSTELLO, Illinois RALPH M. HALL, Texas
EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON, Texas F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER JR.,
LYNN C. WOOLSEY, California Wisconsin
MARK UDALL, Colorado LAMAR S. SMITH, Texas
DAVID WU, Oregon DANA ROHRABACHER, California
BRIAN BAIRD, Washington ROSCOE G. BARTLETT, Maryland
BRAD MILLER, North Carolina VERNON J. EHLERS, Michigan
DANIEL LIPINSKI, Illinois FRANK D. LUCAS, Oklahoma
NICK LAMPSON, Texas JUDY BIGGERT, Illinois
GABRIELLE GIFFORDS, Arizona W. TODD AKIN, Missouri
JERRY MCNERNEY, California JO BONNER, Alabama
LAURA RICHARDSON, California TOM FEENEY, Florida
PAUL KANJORSKI, Pennsylvania RANDY NEUGEBAUER, Texas
DARLENE HOOLEY, Oregon BOB INGLIS, South Carolina
STEVEN R. ROTHMAN, New Jersey DAVID G. REICHERT, Washington
JIM MATHESON, Utah MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas
MIKE ROSS, Arkansas MARIO DIAZ-BALART, Florida
BEN CHANDLER, Kentucky PHIL GINGREY, Georgia
RUSS CARNAHAN, Missouri BRIAN P. BILBRAY, California
CHARLIE MELANCON, Louisiana ADRIAN SMITH, Nebraska
BARON P. HILL, Indiana PAUL C. BROUN, Georgia
HARRY E. MITCHELL, Arizona
CHARLES A. WILSON, Ohio
------
Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation
HON. DAVID WU, Oregon, Chairman
JIM MATHESON, Utah PHIL GINGREY, Georgia
HARRY E. MITCHELL, Arizona VERNON J. EHLERS, Michigan
CHARLIE A. WILSON, Ohio JUDY BIGGERT, Illinois
BEN CHANDLER, Kentucky ADRIAN SMITH, Nebraska
MIKE ROSS, Arizona PAUL C. BROUN, Georgia
LAURA RICHARDSON, California
BART GORDON, Tennessee RALPH M. HALL, Texas
MIKE QUEAR Subcommittee Staff Director
RACHEL JAGODA BRUNETTE Democratic Professional Staff Member
COLIN MCCORMICK Democratic Professional Staff Member
TIND SHEPPER RYEN Republican Professional Staff Member
PIPER LARGENT Republican Professional Staff Member
MEGHAN HOUSEWRIGHT Research Assistant
C O N T E N T S
October 2, 2007
Page
Witness List..................................................... 2
Hearing Charter.................................................. 3
Opening Statements
Statement by Representative David Wu, Chairman, Subcommittee on
Technology and Innovation, Committee on Science and Technology,
U.S. House of Representatives.................................. 11
Written Statement............................................ 12
Statement by Representative Phil Gingrey, Ranking Minority
Member, Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation, Committee on
Science and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives.......... 13
Written Statement............................................ 14
Prepared Statement by Representative Jim Matheson, Member,
Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation, Committee on Science
and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives.................. 16
Prepared Statement by Representative Harry E. Mitchell, Member,
Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation, Committee on Science
and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives.................. 16
Witnesses:
Mr. Gregory B. Cade, Assistant Administrator, Federal Emergency
Management Agency; U.S. Fire Administrator, United States Fire
Administration, Department of Homeland Security
Oral Statement............................................... 16
Written Statement............................................ 18
Biography.................................................... 23
Dr. Sivaraj Shyam Sunder, Director, Building and Fire Research
Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology,
Department of Commerce
Oral Statement............................................... 23
Written Statement............................................ 25
Biography.................................................... 28
Mr. Steven P. Westermann, President and Chief Fire Officer,
International Association of Fire Chiefs
Oral Statement............................................... 29
Written Statement............................................ 31
Biography.................................................... 33
Captain Robert Livingston, Legislative Director of the Oregon
State Council of Fire Fighters, International Association of
Fire Fighters
Oral Statement............................................... 34
Written Statement............................................ 35
Biography.................................................... 38
Mr. Gordon Henderson, Deputy Chief of Operations, Rome-Floyd
County Fire Department; Past President of the Georgia State
Firefighters Association, National Volunteer Fire Council
Oral Statement............................................... 39
Written Statement............................................ 41
Biography.................................................... 43
Dr. John R. Hall, Jr., Assistant Vice President, Fire Analysis
and Research, National Fire Protection Association
Oral Statement............................................... 44
Written Statement............................................ 46
Biography.................................................... 50
Discussion....................................................... 51
Appendix 1: Answers to Post-Hearing Questions
Mr. Gregory B. Cade, Assistant Administrator, Federal Emergency
Management Agency; U.S. Fire Administrator, United States Fire
Administration, Department of Homeland Security................ 64
Dr. Sivaraj Shyam Sunder, Director, Building and Fire Research
Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology,
Department of Commerce......................................... 73
Mr. Steven P. Westermann, President and Chief Fire Officer,
International Association of Fire Chiefs....................... 77
Captain Robert Livingston, Legislative Director of the Oregon
State Council of Fire Fighters, International Association of
Fire Fighters.................................................. 80
Mr. Gordon Henderson, Deputy Chief of Operations, Rome-Floyd
County Fire Department; Past President of the Georgia State
Firefighters Association, National Volunteer Fire Council...... 83
Dr. John R. Hall, Jr., Assistant Vice President, Fire Analysis
and Research, National Fire Protection Association............. 85
Appendix 2: Additional Material for the Record
Statements of support for the reauthorization of the United
States Fire Administration, submitted for the record by
Chairman David Wu.............................................. 90
THE UNITED STATES FIRE ADMINISTRATION REAUTHORIZATION: ADDRESSING THE
PRIORITIES OF THE NATION'S FIRE SERVICE
----------
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2007
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation,
Committee on Science and Technology,
Washington, DC.
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:05 a.m., in
Room 2318 of the Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. David Wu
[Chairman of the Subcommittee] presiding.
<GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT>
hearing charter
SUBCOMMITTEE ON TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION
COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
The United States Fire
Administration Reauthorization:
Addressing the Priorities
of the Nation's Fire Service
tuesday, october 2, 2007
10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
2318 rayburn house office building
1. Purpose
On Tuesday October 2, 2007, the Subcommittee on Technology and
Innovation of the House Committee on Science and Technology will hold a
hearing to explore the priorities of the fire service community for the
U.S. Fire Administration (USFA). The witnesses will discuss the
effectiveness of USFA's current activities, priorities for future
research and development and training activities, and areas of greatest
concern and importance for the upcoming reauthorization.
2. Witnesses
Assistant Administrator Gregory B. Cade is the United States Fire
Administrator.
Dr. Sivaraj Shyam-Sunder is the Director of the Building and Fire
Research Laboratory (BRFL) at the National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST).
Chief Steven P. Westermann is the President and Chief Fire Officer of
the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC).
Captain Robert Livingston is the Captain of the Salem, Oregon Fire
Department, and is the representative of the Oregon State Council of
Fire Fighters of the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF).
Chief Gordon Henderson is the Past President of the Georgia State
Firefighters' Association, Chairman of the Georgia State Firefighters'
Association/Georgia Fire Chiefs Association Joint Legislative
Committee, representing the National Volunteer Fire Council.
Dr. John R. Hall is the Assistant Vice President, Fire Analysis and
Research at the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA).
3. Overarching Questions
The hearing will address the following overarching questions:
<bullet> What is the current status of USFA core activities,
including training through the National Fire Academy,
educational programs, and the National Fire Incident Reporting
System?
<bullet> What are the major priorities of the fire service
community and USFA for the agency's reauthorization?
<bullet> What is the status and budget of USFA research
activities? How are research activities prioritized and how
does USFA leverage the fire-elated research activities of other
federal agencies such as the National Institute of Standards
and Technology (NIST) and the Department of Homeland Security's
Science and Technology Directorate?
<bullet> How does USFA bring the needs and expertise of the
fire service community to the Department of Homeland Security's
(DHS) larger mission of disaster preparedness and response? How
does USFA support State and local fire agencies?
4. Background
History of the USFA
In the early 1970's the President's National Commission on Fire
Prevention and Control released a report entitled America Burning which
presented a bleak assessment of fire safety in the U.S. According to
the report, nearly 12,000 citizens and 250 firefighters lost their
lives annually to fires in the United States. An additional 300,000
Americans suffered fire related injuries each year. In response to
these findings, Congress passed the Federal Fire Prevention and Control
Act of 1974 (P.L. 93-498), which created the National Fire Prevention
and Control Administration within the Department of Commerce. In 1978
Congress changed the agency's name to the U.S. Fire Administration and
subsequent governmental reorganization by President Carter in 1979
placed USFA within the newly created Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA). USFA still resides within FEMA, which is now under DHS,
and it operates from the national Fire Academy campus in Emmitsburg,
Maryland.
USFA's Core Activities
When it was established in 1974, USFA's stated goal was to reduce
fire-related fatalities in the Nation by half--bringing the number to
approximately six thousand per year within a generation. By 1998, the
agency had met this goal, and these numbers continue to drop. However,
according to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) the U.S.
still has on of the highest rates of death, injury, and property loss
due to fire among all industrialized nations. NFPA reports that in 2005
there were 3,675 civilian fire deaths, 17,925 fire injuries, and an
estimated $10.672 billion in direct property losses due to fire.\1\
They estimate that the fire fatality rate is 14.8 per million. Also,
USFA reports that in 2006, 106 firefighters died in the line of duty.
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\1\ Current data are not readily available, but according to the
International Association for the Study of Insurance Economics, in 2003
the U.S. suffered 4,300 fire-related deaths, while Japan, the country
with the second highest number, suffered 2,300 (http://
www.genevaassociation.org/FIRE%20N<SUP>+</SUP>22.pdf).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
USFA continues to combat these high fire losses with activities in
training, education and fire awareness, data collection, research, and
the administration of the Fire Grant programs.
Training: USFA's National Fire Academy (NFA) offers educational
opportunities for the advanced professional development of mid- and
senior-level fire and emergency medical services (EMS) officers, as
well as allied professionals involved in fire prevention and safety
activities. The NFA also develops and delivers educational and training
programs that supplement and support State and local fire service
training. At the campus in Emmitsburg, the NFA teaches approximately
8,900 students annually. NFA curriculum reaches another 73,000 students
through support and partnership with State and local programs, and
their courses reach an additional 200,000 professionals through web-
based distance learning programs. The NFA shares the Emmitsburg Campus
with FEMA's Emergency Management Institute (EMI). Together these two
entities form the National Emergency Training Center. In FY 2007, USFA
funded training activities at $10.7 million, approximately $700,000
over the previous year.
Public Education and Awareness: Through partnerships and special
initiatives, USFA involves the fire service, the media, other federal
agencies, and safety groups in the development and delivery of fire
safety awareness and education programs. These programs are targeted to
those groups most vulnerable to the hazards of fire, including the very
young, elderly people, and the disabled. USFA is also highly engaged in
educational activities to improve firefighter health and safety in an
effort to reduce the number of firefighter fatalities and injuries.
Data Collection: USFA's National Fire Data Center (NFDC)
administers the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS), which
collects, analyzes, and disseminates data and information on fire and
other emergency incidents to State and local governments, and the fire
community. The NFDC provides a nationwide overview and analysis of the
fire problem, identifying problem areas for which prevention and
mitigation strategies are needed. Examples of applications of the NFIRS
data can be found in USFA authored reports on topics such as Structure
Fire Response Times, Fire and Older Adults, and Candle Fire in
Residential Structures.
Research and Related Activities: Through research, testing and
evaluation, USFA works with federal agencies, like NIST and the
Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), and private organizations to
promote and improve fire and life safety. Research conducted within
these partnerships focuses on a variety of topics, such as fire
suppression technology, optimal fire department coverage to reduce
risk, and research to enhance firefighter health and safety.
Fire Grants: The Assistance to Firefighters Grants and the Staffing
for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grants, generally
referred to as the FIRE grants, are administered through the Office of
Grants and Training within FEMA. Through a Memorandum of Understanding,
USFA drafts the guidance for proposals and manages the peer review
process for the grants. These programs are authorized separately from
USFA.
Fire Research Activities at NIST
NIST has been involved in fire technology related research since
the turn of the century and Americans have benefited from standards
development work by NIST's Building Fire and Research Laboratory (BFRL)
in areas such as smoke detector technologies and flame retardant
mattresses and children's sleepwear. More currently, BFRL has been
working on improving fire alarm panel displays in buildings and thermal
imagers to enhance vision for firefighters, among other projects. In
addition to research to aid standards development, BFRL assists in the
technical investigations of major fire incidents, like the collapse of
the World Trade Center and the Station Nightclub fire in Warwick, Rhode
Island.
NIST collaborates with USFA on many of USFA's research projects.
The Federal Fire Prevention and Control Act of 1974 gave NIST authority
to perform and support research on fire-related issues and in 2002,
NIST and FEMA signed a memorandum of understanding to establish a
framework for NIST to serve as a standards and measurement science
resource for FEMA in areas of fire, disaster prevention, and homeland
security. Funding for fire research at BFRL has remained relatively
flat for the past 26 years: in 1980 fire research at BFRL received $7.3
million (2006 dollars) and $8.2 million in 2006. BFRL's grants to fund
extramural fire research, and stimulate the fire science and
engineering professional pipeline dropped from $4.2 million (2006
dollars) in 1980 to $1.3 million in 2006.
5. Priorities for Reauthorization and General Issues
USFA's current authorization will expire at the end of fiscal year
2008. Priorities in the reauthorizing legislation will address updating
NFIRS, addition of curriculum topic areas for the NFA, and increased
focus on firefighting in the wildland-urban interface. Other issues
demanding attention in light of reauthorization are the funding and
prioritization for research activities and educational programs.
NFIRS Update
Updating NFIRS is one of the fire community's most urgent
priorities as timely and accurate fire incident data is a crucial
resource for local fire departments and policy-makers. The current
system captures data from approximately 21,000 fire departments across
the Nation and records about one million fires a year as well as 13
million other emergency incidents. Though participation in NFIRS is
required to be a recipient of FIRE grant money, USFA estimates they
still only capture about 50 percent of the fires that happen annually.
Another concern is that the current reporting system is slow and
bureaucratic. To report incidents, local departments send their data to
a State office, either via a paper form or a computer file. The state
then periodically sends their compiled data to the National Fire Data
Center in Emmitsburg. This system can delay reporting of the incidents
to the database by up to a year. Both USFA and the fire service
community would like to see a more modern reporting system that would
allow for real-time reporting of incident data on a web-based platform.
They believe that transforming the system in this manner will speed up
reporting and bring NFIRS closer to capturing data on all the fire and
emergency incidents that occur in the Nation.
NFIRS was last updated in 1999 to include reporting on a broader
range of emergencies to which fire departments respond. Cost estimates
for creating a web-based, real-time reporting system range from $3 to
$5 million over three years. These costs reflects both the development
of the system and capital investments in IT software or hardware that
USFA would have to make.
Training Curriculum
The training available at NFA's Emmitsburg campus and through their
partnerships and distance learning programs is a vital resource to the
fire service and allied professionals. In most cases, these courses are
unique. As such, NFA strives to work with partners from local, State,
and fire service organizations to keep curriculum up to date and
aligned with the needs of the fire service. The fire service community
has identified additional programmatic areas that are of key concern,
though in many cases NFA is has been proactive in engaging in these
areas already. They include:
<bullet> Firefighting in the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI):
WUI areas are developed sites that are adjacent to wildland
areas. This proximity to forests, grasslands and other
undeveloped areas increases the fire risk to these homes. The
methods of fighting forest fires are fundamentally different
than those of fighting structure fires and unfortunately many
fire departments that must protect the homes and businesses in
these areas do not have personnel properly trained in this type
of firefighting. Development in these areas is increasing.
Thirty-eight percent of new home construction in the Western
U.S. is in these types of areas\2\ and according to the Second
Needs Assessment of the U.S. Fire Service completed by USFA and
NFPA in 2006, only 24 percent of fire departments could fight a
fire in the WUI with local personnel. In response to this
growing problem, USFA has partnered with the National Wildfire
Coordinating Group to create curriculum that would teach
structure firefighters the core competencies needed for
wildfires.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\2\ U.S. Fire Administration Topical Fire Research Series; Vol. 2,
Issue 16, March 2002: Fires in the Wildland/Urban Interface
<bullet> Emergency Medical Service (EMS) Activities: Fire
department-based EMS operations across the country account for
90.8 percent of the emergency medical first response in the
Nation's 200 most populous cities. Nearly every firefighter
receives emergency medical training. Because of the fire
service's large role in EMS activities, the fire service
community would like to ensure that the NFA continue its high-
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
level EMS management courses.
<bullet> Fighting Fires Involving Hazardous Materials: Fires
involving a variety of chemicals and other hazardous materials
pose unique technical and safety risks to firefighters. Many
departments across the country do not have enough adequately
trained firefighters to respond to fires or other emergencies
involving hazardous materials. The NFA currently offers classes
to train fire and emergency service providers, as well as other
local officials, on issues related to mitigation, prevention
and response to the incidents involving hazardous materials
that are either accidental or terrorist in nature.
In addition to ensuring that the NFA spends adequate resources on
curriculum development, the fire service community, especially
volunteer departments, would like to highlight the importance of
``train the trainer'' courses and material. USFA has made a concerted
effort to make many of their courses web-based or partnered with a
local organization. However, there are still many courses that require
a trip to Emmitsburg and volunteer firefighters are often faced with
paying their own travel expenses and using vacation time from their
jobs to attend valuable NFA classes.
Research and Related Activities
USFA has been very resourceful in leveraging limited research funds
to accomplish many projects important to the fire service. In FY 1999,
USFA's funding for research was $500,000. Re-budgeting by USFA in FY
2000, and increased Congressional emphasis in the FY 2001 and FY 2002
reauthorization more than doubled this funding. In FY 2000, USFA funded
research activities at $2 million, and for the next two fiscal years,
the research funding matched the authorization levels of $3 million (FY
2001) and $3.25 million (FY 2002). In that authorization (P.L. 106-
503), Congress requested that USFA submit a report describing their
research agenda and the plans for its implementation. USFA submitted a
report detailing this agenda in March of 2001, compiling it based on
priorities identified at a series of workshops with fire community
stakeholders. Working from USFA's overall goal for the research--
reducing the loss of life to fire by 15 percent over five years--these
workshops identified both broad needs, such as technology transfer, and
very specific research goals in areas such as fire suppression and
personal protective equipment. This agenda has not been officially
updated since USFA submitted the agenda to Congress in 2001. In June of
2005, the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation held the National
Fire Service Research Agenda Symposium at USFA facilities in
Emmitsburg. The purpose of this symposium was to produce a document
that prioritizes areas where research should be directed to improve
firefighter health and safety. The symposium outlined close to forty
areas of research in line with that goal, well more than USFA and its
partners can fund.
USFA's Role Within FEMA/DHS and Disaster Preparedness
In February of 2005, IAFC convened a summit of the major fire
service organizations to discuss what they perceived as a declining
budget and role for USFA within DHS. Then Fire Administrator David
Paulison addressed the organizations, maintaining that while some USFA
programs had been cut over the last four years, the cuts were not
drastic and some programs were being maintained by other means at DHS.
The fire service organizations expressed their opinion that as the
largest contingent of first responders, who respond to a range of
disasters, that the fire service should maintain a highly visible role
in DHS and FEMA with regard to disaster preparedness and response.
<GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT>
7. Proposed Bill Summary
Section 2. Findings
Establishes Congressional findings that: fire deaths, injuries, and
property loses in the U.S. are the highest in the industrialized world;
that USFA provides crucial support to State and local fire agencies;
the collection of data on fire incidents is a vital tool for local
departments and national policy-makers; the research and development
activities performed by USFA in collaboration with NIST and other
federal agencies help to provide firefighters with the most advanced
equipment and knowledge possible; and that USFA should continue to
actively advocate for the fire service within the Department of
Homeland Security.
Section 3. Authorizations
Authorizes USFA at $70,000,000 for fiscal year 2009, $72,100,000
for fiscal year 2010, $74,263,000, and $76,490,890 for fiscal year
2012.
Section 4. Education and Awareness Activities
Authorizes USFA to collaborate with social scientists to conduct
education and awareness activities focusing on promoting fire
prevention and safety for the general public, with a special focus on
vulnerable groups including children and the elderly.
Section 5. Training Activities
Authorizes additional curriculum at the National Fire Academy (NFA)
addressing training related to firefighting in the wildland-urban
interface (WUI), emergency medical services (EMS) management, and
handling issues relating to fire and spills of hazardous materials.
Authorizes curriculum development and courses in the field of
instructor training for instructors involved in firefighter training
activities.
Section 6. National Fire Data Center
Directs USFA to update the National Fire Incident Reporting System
(NFIRS) to speed reporting and to capture more incident information. It
authorizes $5 million total for FY 2008 through FY 2010.
Section 7. Research and Related Activities
Authorize additional research into firefighting technologies and
techniques for the wildland-urban interface.
Section 8: Definitions
Defines ``Administrator,'' ``Wildland-Urban Interface,'' and
``Hazardous Materials.''
DRAFT USFA REAUTHORIZATION BILL
H.R. ######
United States Fire Administration Reauthorization Act of 2007
Section 1. Short Title
Section 2. Findings
1) The loss of life due to fire in the United States has
dropped significantly over the last 25 years. However, the
United States still has one of the highest fire death rates in
the industrialized world, with the National Fire Protection
Association reporting 3,675 civilian fire deaths, 17,925
civilian fire injuries, and $10.672 billion in direct losses
due to fire in 2005. In 2006, the United States Fire
Administration reported 106 on-duty firefighter deaths.
2) The United States Fire Administration provides crucial
support to the Nation's 30,300 fire departments through
training, emergency incident data collection, fire awareness
and education, and support of research and development
activities for fire prevention, control, and suppression
technologies.
3) The collection of data on fire and other emergency
incidents is a vital tool both for policy-makers and emergency
responders to identify and respond to emerging hazards.
Updating the U.S. Fire Administration's data collection
capabilities is essential for accurately tracking and
responding to the magnitude and nature of the Nation's fire
problem.
4) The research and development activities performed by
National Institute of Standards and Technology, USFA, and non-
governmental organizations on fire technologies and standards
setting for these technologies gives the Nation's firefighters
access to the most effective firefighting tools possible.
5) USFA is one of the only channels between State and local
fire agencies and the Federal Government, and as such deserves
a prominent place within the Department of Homeland Security.
Section 3. Authorization of Appropriations
Section 17(g) (1) of the Federal Fire Prevention and Control Act of
1974 (15 USC 2216(g) ) is amended by striking subparagraphs (A) through
(K) and inserting the following:
`` (A) 70,000,000 for fiscal year 2009;
`` (B) 72,100,000 for fiscal year 2010;
`` (C) 74,263,000 for fiscal year 2011;
`` (D) 76,490,890 for fiscal year 2012.''
[Specific authorization of funds (either amount or percentage) to
perform the research and related activities authorized 15 USC Sec.
2207]
Section 4. Fire Awareness and Educational Activities
[The Administrator shall collaborate with social scientists to
develop, evaluate, and implement best practices for educating and
promoting behavior change with regard to fire awareness and prevention
among the general public, especially among vulnerable or high risk
groups such as children, the elderly, minorities, and firefighters.]
Section 5. The National Fire Academy
Section (d)(1) of 15 USC 2206 is amended by re-designating sections
(I) to (N) and inserting:
(I) Response tactics and strategies for dealing with fires
occurring at the wildland-urban interface.
(J) Response tactics and strategies for fire involving
hazardous materials.
(K) Advanced Emergency Medical services training.
[The Administrator shall make such sums as are necessary authorized
available to engage in the ``training of trainers''.]
[The Administrator shall make such sums as are necessary available
to carry out the activities in section (d)(2).]
Section 6. National Fire Incident Reporting System
$1.67 million each fiscal year FY 2009, FY 2010, and FY 2011 of the
funds authorized in Section 3 shall be used to update the National Fire
Incident Reporting system to a web-based, real-time, incident reporting
data-base. Activities to carry out this update can include, but are not
limited to, the hiring of additional staff, capital investment,
engaging contractors, and educating users on the new system.
15 USC 2208 section (b)(2), after ``assist'' insert ``Federal,''
Section 7. New Firefighting Technology
Re-designate sections (e), (f), and (g) of 15 USC 2207 as (f), (g),
(h) respectively and insert after section (d) a new section:
``Wildland Urban Interface Assistance:
``The Administrator is authorized to assist the Nation's Fire
Services directly or through contracts, grants, or other forms
of assistance, to sponsor and encourage research into
approaches, techniques, systems, and equipment to improve fire
prevention and control in those urban areas that abut
wildlands.''
Section 8. Definitions
The term Administrator refers to the Fire Administrator who is the
Assistant Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
[The term Wildland-Urban Interface refers to:.]
[The term Hazardous Materials refers to:.]
Chairman Wu. Good morning. I would like to welcome
everybody to this morning's hearing on the United States Fire
Administration. There are few issues more important than
standing up for our nation's first responders. The Science and
Technology Committee has historically been one of the fire
service community's strongest backers through our support for
and oversight of the United States Fire Administration. I am
eager to hear today's testimony from our prestigious group of
witnesses, who represent a broad group of stakeholders in the
fire service community.
USFA was formed by Congress in 1974 in response to America
Burning, a report by the President's Commission on Fire
Prevention and Control that found there were over 12,000 deaths
due to fire in this country and over 300,000 fire injuries
every single year. Through the hard work of USFA and others, we
have fortunately seen that number drop dramatically. We are now
a much safer nation thanks to improved awareness of fire safety
practices, increased use of smoke detectors and sprinklers, and
other fire safety measures. Still, however, over 3,000 people
die each year in fires and 10,000 more are injured. In
addition, over 100 firefighters lose their lives annually in
the line of duty as we saw tragically this past June in South
Carolina.
Looking around the globe, though, our high numbers are an
anomaly in the industrialized world. In Europe, their fatality
rate per capita is 70 percent lower than ours. So truly we have
more work to do.
USFA supports local fire departments in a variety of
manners. They offer training and career development to
thousands of mid-level firefighters, fire chiefs, and other
emergency management officials. Through the National Fire Data
Center, they collect and manage data on the millions of fires
and other emergencies that fire departments respond to each
year, data that can be used to manage trends and set policy.
USFA develops fire education and awareness curriculum used
across the country. They aim these messages at groups who
suffer the highest fire casualties such as the young, the
elderly, firefighters, as well as others.
In fact, my home state of Oregon was one of the first
states to begin reporting fire data to USFA and also one of the
highest users of USFA training programs.
Lastly, in partnership with the National Institute of
Standards and Technology, or NIST, the Department of Homeland
Security's Science and Technology Directorate, other federal
agencies, and private organizations, USFA conducts and directs
research on a variety of fire-related topics from technology--
like thermal imaging cameras and protective clothing to assist
firefighters in the line of duty--to studies of behaviors that
cause fires.
As I am sure we will hear today, USFA's programs are
incredibly important to the Nation's fire service who must meet
an increasing number of challenges from preparing for terrorist
attacks and catastrophic hurricanes to the everyday, but still
scary, house fire.
Standards are also an essential part of the work of USFA
and its many partners.
Our witnesses today will no doubt discuss USFA's role in
the fire safety standards development process as well as the
important contributions of NIST. As many of you know, fire was
the inspiration for some of the original standards done by
NIST. In 1904, a large fire broke out in Baltimore. Fire
companies from around the region responded, but they found that
they were unable to fit their hoses onto the Baltimore hydrants
because they were not built to standard sizes; and the fire
burned for an additional 30 hours in spite of the regional
response. Following the fire, NIST, which was then called the
National Bureau of Standards, was asked by Congress to work
with NFPA to set a standard that would avert similar future
tragedies. To me this story exemplifies the challenge in
coordinating a truly local service performed by over 30,000
different fire departments at the federal level.
These 30,000 different departments serve a variety of
communities, from the largest to the smallest, and an
overwhelming number of those who serve as firefighters do so on
a volunteer basis. One asset the Federal Government can offer
these departments is the U.S. Fire Administration.
As we look forward to reauthorizing the Fire
Administration, I am very interested to hear from our witnesses
today, who I believe represent a broad collection of views from
the fire community, on what USFA is doing right, and what they
need to be doing to meet the needs of the fire community more
effectively.
[The prepared statement of Chairman Wu follows:]
Prepared Statement of Chairman David Wu
Good morning. I would like to welcome everybody to this morning's
hearing on the United States Fire Administration.
There are few issues more important than standing up for our
nation's first responders.
The Science and Technology Committee has historically been one of
the fire service community's strongest backers through our support for
and oversight of the U.S. Fire Administration. I'm eager to hear
today's testimony from our prestigious group of witnesses, who
represent a broad group of stakeholders in the fire service community.
USFA was formed by Congress in 1974 in response to America Burning,
a report by the President's Commission on Fire Prevention and Control
that found there were over 12,000 deaths due to fire in this country
and over 300,000 fire injuries each year. Through the hard work of USFA
and others, we have fortunately seen that number drop dramatically.
We are now a much safer nation, thanks to improved awareness of
fire safety practices like the increased use of smoke detectors and
sprinklers, and other fire safety measures. Still, however, over 3,000
people die each year in fires and 10,000 more are injured.
In addition, approximately 100 firefighters lose their lives
annually in the line of duty, as we saw tragically this past June in
South Carolina. In looking around the globe though, our high numbers
are an anomaly in the industrialized world. In Europe, their fatality
rate per capita is 70 percent lower than ours. So truly we have a lot
more work to do.
USFA supports local fire departments in a variety of manners. They
offer training and career development to thousands of mid-level
firefighters, fire chiefs, and other emergency management officials.
Through the National Fire Data Center they collect and manage data on
the millions of fires and other emergencies fire departments respond to
each year--data that can then be used to manage trends and set policy.
USFA develops fire education and awareness curriculum material to be
used across the country. They aim these messages at groups who suffer
the highest fire casualties, such as the young, the elderly, and
firefighters, as well as others.
And in fact, my home state of Oregon was one of the first states to
begin reporting fire data to USFA and also is one of the highest users
of USFA training programs.
Lastly, in partnership with the National Institute for Standards
and Technology (NIST); the Department of Homeland Security's Science
and Technology Directorate; other federal agencies; and private
organizations, USFA conducts and directs research on a variety of fire
related topics, from technology like thermal imaging cameras and
protective clothing to assist firefighters in the line of duty, to
studies of behaviors that cause fires.
As I am sure we will hear today, USFA's programs are incredibly
important to the Nation's fire service who must meet an increasing
number of challenges from preparing for terrorist attacks and
catastrophic hurricanes to the everyday, but still scary, house fire.
Standards are also an essential part of the work of USFA and its
many partners. Our witnesses today will no doubt discuss USFA's role in
the fire safety standards development process, as well as the important
contributions of NIST.
As many of you know, fire was the inspiration for some of the
original standards work carried out by NIST. In 1904, a large fire
broke out up in Baltimore. Fire companies from around the region
responded, but found that they were unable to fit their hoses onto the
Baltimore hydrants because they were not built to standard sizes, and
the fire burned for an additional 30 hours in spite of the wide
regional response.
Following the fire, NIST, which was then called the National Bureau
of Standards, was tasked by Congress to work with NFPA to set a
standard that would avert similar future tragedies. To me this story
exemplifies the challenge in coordinating a truly local service,
performed by over 30,000 different fire departments, at the federal
level.
These 30,000 different departments serve a variety of communities
from the biggest to the smallest and an overwhelming number of those
who serve as firefighters do so on a volunteer basis. One asset the
Federal Government can offer these departments is the U.S. Fire
Administration.
As we look forward to reauthorizing the Fire Administration, I am
very interested to hear from our witnesses today, who I believe
represent a broad collection of views from the fire community on what
USFA is doing right and what they need to be doing to meet the needs of
the fire community more effectively.
Chairman Wu. And now for his opening statement, our Ranking
Member of the Subcommittee, Dr. Gingrey of Georgia.
Mr. Gingrey. Thank you, Chairman Wu, and good morning. And
I want to thank you for holding the hearing today that will
begin the process of reauthorizing the United States Fire
Administration. The stated mission of USFA is to reduce life
and economic losses due to fire and related emergencies through
leadership, advocacy, coordination, and support. This
organization provides vital assistance in the areas of
training, fire education, and awareness and grants to a number
of local fire departments across the country including my
district, these very, very important grants. The testimony that
our witnesses will provide this morning will help better shape
the future priorities of the USFA as we work on the agency's
reauthorization, and certainly I look forward to hearing from
them on this important matter.
USFA's training, education, and monitoring activities have
made a substantial impact over the last 30 years. Smoke alarms
are now standard issue to residences across the country. I wish
they were all wired instead of battery operated, but we
continue to work on that. Over one million firefighters have
received advanced training from USFA, and firefighter equipment
and safety continually improves. However, while USFA should be
proud of its record of achievement, it is also clear that
improvements still need to be made. In the last ten years,
deaths related to fires have decreased by approximately 25
percent from nearly 5,000 in 1996 to 3,675 in 2006. Although
that decrease in fire-related deaths is commendable, the United
States still has one of the highest death rates from fire in
the industrialized world. It is hard to believe. Additionally,
despite decreases in the number of fires, direct damage costs
are increasing and have topped $10 billion per year. Put that
another way, in an average year, fire causes as much damage in
the United States as do hurricanes.
These statistics highlight the importance of the USFA,
United States Fire Administration, and why we are here today.
USFA has a substantial public safety mission whose magnitude is
not often recognized.
Therefore, as the Committee begins drafting legislation
that will provide a framework for USFA in the coming years, I
look forward to this panel of witnesses to sketch out where the
needs are the greatest, what programs have been successful to
this date and maybe where we currently may be a little bit off-
course.
Before I finish, though, let me bring up one particular
area of concern for me. Several of our witnesses I think will
discuss potentially updating the National Fire Incident
Reporting System. I think that's referred to as NFIRS. I want
to urge a little caution and diligence in approaching the
upgrade. IT projects like this one, even on this committee and
Chairman Gordon has a bill pertaining to IT in regard to health
information technology, electronic medical records, but IT
projects can rapidly fall apart potentially leaving USFA with
some very unhappy users and ballooning infrastructure costs. So
the USFA and the fire community, I think, need to be very
specific about the goals and limitations in creating a new
system. Will web-based reporting bring in better quality data
or provide tangible benefits over the current system? That is
the big question, and how will the upgraded system meet the
needs of local, State, and USFA personnel?
These are just a couple of questions that need to be
addressed as we begin the process of reauthorizing USFA, and I
look forward to hearing the testimony of all of our witnesses
today. Mr. Chairman, thank you again for convening the hearing
to address the future of USFA and I yield back.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Gingrey follows:]
Prepared Statement of Representative Phil Gingrey
Good morning Chairman Wu. I want to thank you for holding this
hearing today that will begin the process of reauthorizing the United
States Fire Administration. The stated mission of USFA is ``reduce life
and economic losses due to fire and related emergencies, through
leadership, advocacy, coordination and support.'' This organization
provides vital assistance in the areas of training, fire education and
awareness and grants to a number of local fire departments across the
country. The testimony that our witnesses will provide this morning
will help better shape the future priorities of USFA as we work on the
agency's reauthorization, and I look forward to hearing from them on
this important matter.
USFA's training, education, and monitoring activities have made a
substantial impact over the last 30 years. Smoke alarms are now
standard issue in residences across the country; over a million
firefighters have received advanced training from USFA; and firefighter
equipment and safety continually improves.
However, while USFA should be proud of its record of achievement,
it's also clear that improvements still can be made. In the last ten
years, deaths related to fires have decreased by approximately 25
percent, from nearly 5,000 in 1996 to 3,675 in 2006. Although that
decrease in fire-related deaths is commendable, the United States still
has one of the highest death rates from fire in the industrialized
world. Additionally, despite decreases in the numbers of fires, direct
damage costs are increasing and have topped $10 billion per year. Put
another way, in an average year, fires cause as much damage in the
United States as hurricanes.
These statistics highlight the importance of the United States Fire
Administration and why we are here today. USFA has a substantial public
safety mission whose magnitude is not often recognized.
Therefore, as the Committee begins drafting legislation that will
provide a framework for USFA in the coming years, I look to this panel
of witnesses to sketch out where the needs are greatest, what programs
have been successful to date, and where we currently may be a bit off
course.
Before I finish, let me also bring up one particular area of
concern for me. Several of our witnesses will discuss potentially
updating the National Fire Incident Reporting System or NFIRS (en-
firs). I would like to urge caution and diligence in approaching this
upgrade. IT projects like this one can rapidly fall apart, potentially
leaving USFA with unhappy users and ballooning infrastructure costs.
USFA and the fire community need to be very specific about the goals
and limitations of a new system. Will web-based reporting bring in
better quality data or provide tangible benefits over the current
system? How will the upgraded system meet the needs of local, State,
and USFA personnel?
These are just a couple of questions that need to be addressed as
we begin the process of reauthorizing USFA. I look forward to hearing
the testimony of all of our witnesses today. Mr. Chairman, thank you
again for convening this hearing to address the future USFA. With that,
I yield back.
Chairman Wu. Thank you very much, Dr. Gingrey. At this
point, I would like to introduce our witnesses today. First,
the United States Fire Administrator, Gregory Cade of the USFA.
Before taking this position, he was the Fire Chief and
Emergency Services Coordinator for the City of Virginia Beach.
Dr. Shyam Sunder is the Director of the Building and Fire
Research Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and
Technology. Chief Steven Westermann is the President and Chief
Fire officer for the International Association of Fire Chiefs
and the Fire Chief of Central Jackson County Fire Protection
District in Missouri. An old friend, Captain Robert Livingston
is the Legislative Director of the Oregon State Council of Fire
Fighters of the International Association of Fire Fighters and
also a Captain in the Salem, Oregon, Fire Department. Chief
Gordon Henderson I will let Dr. Gingrey introduce in a moment,
and Dr. John Hall is the Assistant Vice-President of Fire
Analysis and Research for the National Fire Protection
Association. And I yield to Dr. Gingrey to further introduce
Chief Henderson.
Mr. Gingrey. Mr. Chairman, I thank you very much for that
courtesy of allowing me to introduce Chief Gordon Henderson
from Ford County, Georgia, my district, the 11th District of
Georgia in Northwest Georgia, the greatest part of the state.
Chief Henderson has served in the fire service for 32 years. He
spent the last 16 as Deputy Chief of Operations for the Rome,
Floyd County, Fire Department. Chief Henderson is also Past
President of the Georgia State Firefighters Association, and he
currently serves as the Chairperson of the Georgia Fire Service
Legislative Committee. That is an important one. He is
appearing before us today on behalf of the National Volunteer
Fire Council, and it is always nice to welcome a fellow
Georgian to testify before the Subcommittee. Mr. Chairman, I
know that you will be able to provide Chief Henderson with a
unique and interesting perspective due to your years of service
and leadership experience, and I certainly thank you for
joining us today. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Wu. I reclaim my time. As all of the witnesses
know, your written testimony will be submitted in full, and
your spoken testimony, please try to limit it to five minutes
after which the Members of the Committee will have five minutes
each to ask questions; and if any other Members have opening
statements to submit, they will be submitted for the written
record.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Matheson follows:]
Prepared Statement of Representative Jim Matheson
Chairman Wu and Ranking Member Gingrey, I thank you both for
holding this important hearing this morning regarding the U.S. Fire
Administration (USFA). The U.S. Fire Administration plays a critical
role in protecting communities against fire losses through its
training, education, data collection and research activities.
Coming from Utah, I am particularly interested in hearing more
about what the USFA and other agencies are doing to address the
challenges of fighting fire in the Wildland-Urban Interface. In reading
your testimony in preparation for this hearing, I was interested to
learn about the rising costs and dangers associated with firefighting
in these rural areas.
I look forward to hearing from this distinguished panel of
witnesses about the USFA's current priorities as well as their thoughts
as to how we can best address the challenges of firefighting in the
Wildland-Urban Interface. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Mitchell follows:]
Prepared Statement of Representative Harry E. Mitchell
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The United States Fire Administration serves an important role in
making sure that our first responders have all the latest training and
information available.
For the last 33 years, this agency has partnered with the National
Institute of Standards and Technology and others to set forward
technology, curriculum, and consumer education standards that have
helped significantly decrease fire-related deaths and injuries.
As you know, my district lies in the heart of Arizona's arid, hot,
Sonoran desert.
This climate attracts thousands of new residents and millions of
visitors every year, and it is our responsibility to keep them safe.
In my capacity on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee,
I have fought to provide Arizona with adequate resources to make sure
this population growth is met with adequate infrastructure improvement.
My district has 29 fire stations that employs 555 active volunteer
and career firefighters.
These brave men and women protect 671,000 residents day and night,
and contribute to keeping Arizona among the lowest rate of fire-related
deaths in the Nation.
Unfortunately, the Fire Administration has not been able to keep up
with maintaining an efficient fire incident database. This is due to
bureaucratic red-tape and aging database technology.
We owe it to our constituents and first responders to update this
system and minimize bureaucratic barriers.
I am also concerned about protecting Wildland-Urban Interface
areas.
With cities expanding into forests, deserts, and other fire-prone
environments, it is important that our firefighters are properly
trained, equipped, and fully prepared to deal with emerging threats.
I am looking forward to hearing from our panel on how we can
achieve these goals, and I yield back.
Chairman Wu. At this point, we will begin our testimony
with Administrator Cade. Please proceed, Mr. Cade.
STATEMENT OF MR. GREGORY B. CADE, ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR,
FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY; U.S. FIRE ADMINISTRATOR,
UNITED STATES FIRE ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND
SECURITY
Mr. Cade. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to say good
morning to both of you and all of the rest of the Members of
the Committee. It is a pleasure to be here this morning to
speak on behalf of the United States Fire Administration and
Secretary Chertoff. I appreciate what the Committee is getting
ready to do. I think the reauthorization of the United States
Fire Administration is something critically important.
As you pointed out in my biography, I have had the pleasure
of being in the fire service now for 40 years, and the things
that are done as part of the United States Fire Administration
are extremely important. USFA is truly a leader in providing
fire safety and fire prevention programs. We don't do it by
ourselves, and sitting here today with me is a distinguished
panel of other people that we work with and partner with to get
the things done that we need to do.
There is nothing more important in my opinion than the
education of the first responders in the first response
community. Yes, my experience has been the first responders
truly are there when things start, and they are there when
everybody else goes home. So making sure that they have the
tools and the training and the education to be able to do their
job, I see as a very critical issue, and I see the role of the
United States Fire Administration as one that can help not only
provide some of the training directly to that community but
also, truly with our State partners and local partners, to be
able to provide it out at the local level. It is impossible for
everyone to get up to the wonderful facility at the National
Emergency Training Center, even though we get about 9,000
people through there a year. There are 1.2 million firefighters
here in the United States that need that training. So clearly,
we have to partner with many of the organizations that sit here
at this table today to be able to get our job done.
I think that there is a critical need for the fire service
to continue to take the leading role in teaching how to provide
incident command training that meets the National Incident
Management System. There is no one in my opinion who uses the
ICS system on a daily basis more effectively than the fire
service, and hopefully, what we are going to be able to do with
the United States Fire Administration is to help them to become
a center of excellence in their local communities and take the
knowledge that they have and provide that to everyone else.
I know that when you look at the other issues that are
facing the fire service, the critical issue that has come about
certainly in the last few years, but probably something we have
been working on for the last ten is this whole issue of the
national wildland urban interface and the problems that it is
creating for the communities. The USFA has been working very
diligently with its partners, not only in the U.S. Fire
Service, but also in the Bureau of Land Management, to try and
figure out how do we do a better job of preparing first
responders at the structural firefighting level that are
continuing more and more to be engaged in doing wildland
firefighting. So we are working with those and other partners.
It is important for me to be sitting here today the week
before the National Fire Prevention Week starts, and I am glad
that you chose today to conduct the hearing because next week
we are going to put an even greater focus, and hopefully get
our whole country to focus on, fire prevention and fire
prevention activities, such as changing the batteries in their
smoke detectors; and I, too, wish they were all wired together.
It would certainly make a significant difference.
I agree that the numbers of fire deaths and fire injuries
here in the United States is something that we continue to need
to work on and do a much better job with. Our commitment within
the United States Fire Administration is to look at using the
data collection capabilities that we have to put the facts out
there to help guide the research that is being done with our
partners and to look at better ways to be able to safeguard not
only the communities but certainly safeguard the firefighters.
Unfortunately, so far this year, we are at 96 line-of-duty
deaths. That really concerns me. I am afraid before this year
is out, we will be over 120. I have spoken out about it
numerous times, and I am going to continue to speak about it. I
think that there is a role that needs to be continued to be
pushed from the United States Fire Administration standpoint in
the use of residential sprinklers as a way of hopefully being
able to address the next level of injuries and deaths that are
taking place. I think that putting a greater emphasis on
residential sprinkler systems will not only do a better job of
suppressing the fires but I think it will help to deal with the
$10 billion a year loss and even more importantly, with the
loss of lives that we are seeing, not only in the community but
also with our firefighters.
So it is important, I think, to be able to do that, to look
at how do we collect that data. We are looking at trying to
make some modifications in our data collection capability and
go to a web-based program. One of the dilemmas that we have
right now is the way the system is structured. In some cases,
we are not getting the data out of the states until 12 or 18
months. When I went through my confirmation hearing, and I have
said this before, some of the questions that I had that I
wanted data to be able to answer, I couldn't get 2006
statistics, which I thought was pretty amazing. When you can go
on the internet today and Google something and find out tons of
information, to me, a fire chief sitting at his or her desk
ought to have that same capability to look at using the data.
There is no one else in the world who has better fire
statistics and more of it than the United States Fire
Administration and the National Fire Data Center. We have over
21,000 fire departments that are continuing to provide
information to us across this country. We are looking at
expanding it. We have a program right now where we have been
working not only with the Department of Defense but also with
our tribal partners to see about how we can do a better job of
correlating the data for them and be able to use that.
We have a lot of relationships and you will hear that, I am
sure, from the other people that are going to speak after me
about the good things that are going on and the needs that we
have across the fire service.
With that, Mr. Chairman, I will be happy to answer whatever
questions that you have.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Cade follows:]
Prepared Statement of Gregory B. Cade
Good morning, Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee. My name is
Gregory B. Cade and I am an Assistant Administrator at the Federal
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the United States Fire
Administrator in charge of the United States Fire Administration (USFA)
at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). I appreciate the
opportunity to appear before you today on behalf of Secretary Chertoff.
Each year fires injure and kill more Americans than the combined
losses from floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, and other
natural disasters. Death rates from fires in the United States are
among the highest in the industrialized world. Part of the USFA's
mission is to reduce loss of life and property due to fire and related
emergencies. This is not an easy task, but it is one the USFA takes on
every day, in coordination with other federal agencies, and in
partnership with fire protection and emergency service communities. We
take the mission of preparing the Nation's fire service seriously and
will continue to work tirelessly to reduce the loss of life among the
civilian population as well as among the Nation's fire service.
As you are aware, USFA recently completed a transition to FEMA as
part of the Post Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act. As a part of
``New FEMA,'' the staff will continue to work diligently to reduce
deaths, injuries, and the damage to property through leadership,
advocacy, coordination and support in USFA's long standing four basic
mission areas: training, public education and awareness, applied
research and technology, and data collection and analysis.
To accomplish our mission, we work with the fire service, other
emergency responders, Federal, State, local and tribal governments, and
allied professionals to better prepare them to prevent, protect
against, and respond to all incidents, including acts of terrorism.
Being prepared for all types of incidents is by far the biggest
challenge in this day and age. With the threats today's fire services
face, preparing them to respond to all incidents is essential. We will
continue to provide educational programs through the National Fire
Academy (NFA) and provide educational materials to our partners at the
State, local, and tribal level to help achieve higher levels of
preparedness.
We are interacting with State, local and tribal governments, the
private sector, and DHS's Science and Technology Directorate to provide
standardized, practical, inter-operable equipment. We are helping first
responders and emergency managers practice and refine their response
plans with partners at all levels of government.
Today, I will focus my remarks on USFA's programs and services.
Through these programs we will improve the preparedness, effectiveness
and safety of our first responders. I will also summarize our current
activities and future needs.
USFA is a national leader in providing fire safety and prevention
programs. We also lead the way in preparing communities to deal with
fires and other hazards. USFA is supporting the efforts of local
communities to reduce the number of fires and fire deaths, and it
champions federal fire protection issues and coordinates information
about fire programs.
In terms of our preparedness programs, we recognize the importance
of education as a vital step toward a first responder community
prepared to respond to any kind of emergency, ranging from a small fire
to a terrorist attack involving a large number of victims or extensive
infrastructure damage. We continue to administer educational programs
for community leaders and first responders to help them prepare for and
respond to emergencies regardless of cause or magnitude. USFA also
strongly advocates for local fire departments to be the center of
preparedness within their jurisdictions. We believe these local
departments should take the lead in preparing their communities through
public education and training other departments and agencies on the
concepts of the Incident Command System and the National Incident
Management System. These fire departments should set the standard for
the rest of the community by ensuring their members all have family
emergency plans and at least 72 hours worth of supplies. The public
looks to the fire department for help once a disaster strikes, and we
believe fire departments should set the example of how to prepare
before the disaster strikes.
USFA will continue to work with the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention and their National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.
Through this partnership we can share data and analyses to help both
agencies better track civilian fire injuries and deaths.
We are working closely with other divisions within FEMA, including
the National Preparedness Directorate (NPD). USFA has been
collaborating with the NPD's National Integration Center to coordinate
training programs and to ensure NFA courses are not in competition with
or repetitive of NPD's, the Emergency Management Institute's or Center
for Domestic Preparedness courses. USFA has also been working closely
with NPD to ensure all NFA courses are in line with the new National
Preparedness Guidelines and touch on elements of the Universal Task
List and the Target Capabilities List.
Education and Preparedness Programs
NFA offers a wide variety of training and educational programs to
promote the professional development of command level fire officers,
emergency managers, emergency responders, technical staff, and allied
professionals such as architects and engineers.
Students and their supervisors who have attended NFA courses have
told us Academy courses have improved their job performance and
increased their professional development. An assessment conducted in FY
2006, revealed that 82 percent of supervisors who responded reported an
improvement in the student's job performance following training. In
addition, 93 percent reported that attending courses at NFA contributed
to the student's professional development and almost 87 percent
reported that the training improved their department's performance.
State and local support for fire service training must be increased
and the federal role is to foster this participation. USFA will
continue to:
<bullet> Coordinate the exchange of training materials and
information among State and local fire training systems;
<bullet> Focus on distance learning and alternate training
delivery methods such as National Fire Academy Online
(NFAOnline);
<bullet> Revise courses to include the most current
information, public fire safety education and emergency
response;
<bullet> Partner with associate and bachelor degree programs
to align the national academic fire curricula;
<bullet> Include multiple delivery formats in future course
development so the nexus of the course may be provided to the
field in a variety of adaptable formats;
<bullet> Shorten some resident classes to offer more
educational opportunities; and
<bullet> Provide faster turnaround to get newly learned skills
applied in the field.
Distance learning strategies and strategic partnerships with State
fire service training organizations have helped us realize a continued
increase in the number of students the NFA trains each year. The most
recent admissions statistics show in FY 2007 8,278 students attended
on-campus residential training courses and 76,918 students attended
off-campus/distance learning training courses, which include classroom-
based training at the State/local/tribal level as well as online
distance learning. This represents a 13 percent increase over the
previous fiscal year.
USFA's NFA works in partnership with accredited State Fire Training
Programs. These State programs have over $700 million in capital
facilities and trained over 750,000 firefighters last year.
For the past 10 years, we have partnered with colleges and
universities across the country to ensure important fire safety
concepts are delivered to the Nation's fire service. Our training
programs continue to focus on courses aligned with USFA's Operational
Objectives. The NFA continues to develop and deliver training that
cannot be obtained through other institutions. A curriculum review for
the NFA curriculum is scheduled for FY 2008 and we expect to see those
results by June 2008.
USFA is working with the National Incident Management System
division within FEMA and National Wildfire Coordinating Group to
prepare regional All Hazard Incident Management Teams (AHIMT). These
teams provide support for major incidents prior to, or in lieu of, the
arrival of a Federal IMT. We are training these teams on almost a
weekly basis throughout the Nation. So far this year we have helped
establish 12 teams, coordinated 48 training sessions, and expect
another nine course offerings within the next six months.
Our National Fire Programs division has assumed additional
preparedness roles since our last reauthorization hearing. The division
now has staff dedicated to:
<bullet> Work with the Department of Agriculture to provide
expertise in structural firefighting as part of the National
Response Framework Emergency Support Function 4;
<bullet> Support the Emergency Management and Response--
Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EMR-ISAC) for non-
classified intelligence sharing with America's first
responders; and
<bullet> Provide a presence at the DHS National Operations
Center to keep first responders apprised of emerging threats
and events.
Public Education and Awareness
USFA continues to deliver fire safety messages to those most
vulnerable to fire--the very young, the elderly, and others. USFA works
closely with National fire service organizations to push the message of
fire safety out to all at risk sectors of the population. For example,
this year USFA will once again partner with the National Fire
Protection Association for the National Fire Prevention Week, which is
scheduled for October 7-13, 2007. We will continue to manage the Quick
Response program where we blitz local media with proactive fire safety
messages following fire fatalities.
USFA works to identify and develop public, private, and fire
community partnership opportunities to implement and enhance fire
prevention and awareness activities. We do this by providing
professional, managerial, and technical assistance to State, local, and
tribal fire service organizations and individuals.
We are working with our State and local partners, as well as
industry representatives, to support residential fire sprinkler
initiatives--a low-cost and reliable life saving solution to one
segment of America's fire problem.
We have initiated a thriving program entitled Prevention Advocacy,
Resources, and Data Exchange (PARADE) that provides State and
metropolitan fire officials a venue for sharing their own successful
fire prevention and protection strategies.
Data Collection
USFA continues to collect, analyze, publish, and distribute data to
define and describe the national fire problem while assisting State,
local, and tribal agencies in developing standardized incident
reporting methods for the collection and analysis of local fire
incident data.
USFA's National Fire Data Center (NFDC) administers the National
Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS), which is used by over 21,000
fire departments to document incidents to which they respond. In
addition, the NFDC manages the National Fire Department Census, a
voluntary online directory of almost 26,000 fire departments.
NFDC also tracks on-duty firefighter fatalities and has conducted
an annual fatalities analysis for more than 20 years. Through the
collection of information on the causes of firefighter deaths, USFA is
able to focus on specific problems and direct efforts toward finding
solutions to reduce the number of firefighter fatalities in the future.
This information is also used to measure the effectiveness of current
programs directed toward firefighter health and safety.
NFDC disseminates a wide range of technical, educational, and
marketing information to the general public and fire services
organizations through Internet and print-based mediums.
Research and Technology
To maximize the impact of limited resources, USFA uses its national
position to serve as a focal point for developing cooperative
relationships among the diverse organizations that have a shared
interest in developing new technologies to address fire safety and
firefighting. USFA-supported fire research, almost without exception,
is accomplished through partnerships.
USFA is working closely with the DHS Science and Technology (S&T)
Directorate to identify areas of complementary research, inform S&T on
research needs specific to the fire community, and explore ways of
combining resources for maximum impact.
USFA has long standing working relationships with a variety of
federal agencies including the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health,
Consumer Product Safety Commission, Department of Transportation,
Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Justice,
Occupational Safety & Health Administration, and the National Institute
of Standards and Technology. In addition, there are partnerships with
national-level fire trade associations such as the National Volunteer
Fire Council, the International Association of Fire Chiefs, the
International Association of Fire Fighters, International Code Council,
and the National Fire Protection Association. USFA also reaches out to
academic institutions and non-fire service organizations to address
topics of mutual interest. By sharing resources and expertise, the
partners are able to achieve much more together than they could achieve
individually.
The data and information derived from these partnership research
efforts have influenced the decisions of consensus standards-making
committees on a number of topics such as thermal imaging cameras,
firefighting protective clothing, chemical protective clothing,
protective clothing for urban search and rescue, self-contained
breathing apparatus, and residential sprinkler systems.
USFA also leverages research partnerships and technology
developments to improve fire prevention and promote public safety.
Currently, USFA is working with others in the fire sprinkler community
to promote installation of residential fire sprinklers. Residential
sprinklers can substantially reduce the impact of residential fire
incidents, injuries, and fatalities. The National Fire Protection
Association reports that when sprinklers are present the chances of
dying in a fire are reduced by about two-thirds, regardless of whether
smoke alarms were present or not. If sprinklers are introduced before
smoke alarms, the death rate would fall about 69 percent; if smoke
alarms are introduced first, the death rate would be expected to fall
by one-half; sprinklers would reduce the remaining fatality rate by 63
percent. Together with smoke alarms, sprinklers cut the risk of dying
in a home fire by 82 percent, relative to having neither, and there is
a potential for a dramatic decrease in the over 2,500 residential fire
deaths which occur each year in America. Average property loss per
residential fire is about one-half less when compared to fires where
sprinklers are not present. In addition, as more than 25 percent of
firefighter on-duty deaths are associated with residential fires, a
long-term benefit of residential sprinklers is firefighter injuries and
deaths will also be reduced. Simply put--we will have fewer
firefighters killed on-duty if we have fewer firefighters responding to
major fires that could have been extinguished or contained by a
residential sprinkler system.
Since FY 2005, 15 Firefighter Research and Development grants have
been awarded through the Assistance to Firefighters Grants (AFG)
program. These grants have totaled nearly $17 million and were granted
to 19 different organizations. While USFA does not operate the AFG
program, it does work closely with the AFG program office within FEMA
to ensure the fire service is represented.
Since FY 2005, 15 Firefighter Research and Development grants have
been awarded through the Assistance to Firefighters Grants (AFG)
program. These grants have totaled nearly $17 million and were granted
to 19 different organizations. While USFA does not operate the AFG
program, it does work closely with the AFG program office within FEMA
to ensure the fire service is represented.
This collaboration also includes working with the AFG program
office on the Fire Prevention and Safety Grants (FP&S) and Staffing for
Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) Grant. The FP&S grants
support projects that enhance the safety of the public and firefighters
from fire and related hazards. The primary goal of the FP&S is to
target high-risk populations and mitigate high incidences of death and
injury. USFA's work with the SAFER Grants ensures funding goes directly
to fire departments in order to help increase the number of trained,
firefighters available across the country.
PREPnet
The Preparedness Network (PREPnet) is a satellite-based distance
learning system used by USFA to bring interactive training programs
into virtually any community nationwide. With a wide variety of
programs for the public safety community, there's something for
everyone. All programming is open and in the public domain, so any
community with access to a C-band or Ku-band analog satellite dish or a
community cable vision provider can receive broadcasts and participate
in the training programs.
On Wednesday, September 19th, USFA's PREPnet supported the roll-out
of the National Response Framework (NRF) from the PREPnet studios in
Emmitsburg, MD. This broadcast, which was simultaneously a TV broadcast
via the Dish Network, a Video Teleconference over FEMA's internal VTC
system, and a web cast available on the Internet to any interested
parties, featured NPD Deputy Administrator Dennis Schrader and Al
Fluman, Acting Director of FEMA's Incident Management Systems Division
(IMSD), who presented an overview of the NRF and answered a series of
questions received from actual viewers during the broadcast.
PREPnet also recently hosted a Virtual Town Hall on School
Preparedness as a part of National Preparedness Month. A panel of
experts from the Department of Education's Office of Safe and Drug-Free
Schools and FEMA's NPD discussed grant opportunities and planning,
training, and other preparedness tools available to school districts
nationwide.
Challenges
Reducing the loss of life and property caused by fire remains a
significant challenge. Each year, fire kills more than 3,000 people and
injures more than 16,000. Annual property losses due to fire are
estimated at more than $11 billion. The Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention tells us fire and burn injuries represent one percent of the
incidence of reported injuries and two percent of the total costs of
injuries, or $7.5 billion each year. Unfortunately, our nation's
firefighters continue to also pay a large price in keeping fire deaths
and property losses down. As of September 21, 2007, 93 firefighters
have been killed while on duty this calendar year.
Although the numbers are still too high as most of these deaths can
be prevented, great progress is being made to reduce the toll from
fires. Since 1974, when Congress passed the Federal Fire Prevention and
Control Act (Pub. L. No. 93-498), and established the United States
Fire Administration and its National Fire Academy, USFA has helped to
reduce fire deaths significantly. Over the last 10 years, fires have
declined by 13 percent. During this same period, a 12 percent decline
in civilian deaths and a 31 percent drop in civilian injuries were also
reported.
New programs need to be developed which will prepare responders to
deal with the Wildland/Urban Interface. This involves the issue of
urban sprawl and how to reduce fire risk for the population. Population
decentralization in the U.S. has resulted in rapid development in the
outlying fringe of metropolitan areas and in rural areas as people want
to move out of the city centers.
We need to enhance our emphasis on preparing the Nation's first
responders for all hazards, including natural, technological and
terrorist incidents. We will accomplish this through education and
information sharing with our partner organizations and agencies.
The USFA will continue to work with the United States Department of
Justice's (DOJ), Public Safety Officer Benefits (PSOB) program as it
relates to death benefits for first responders who are killed in the
line of duty. Unfortunately, there are an overwhelming number of
families of firefighters who have been killed in the line of duty who
have yet to receive any death benefits. We look forward to working with
DOJ on relieving this deadlock and getting benefits to those families
who qualify.
Conclusion
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for giving me this opportunity to appear
before you today. Your continued support is greatly appreciated. I will
be glad to answer any questions you and other Members of the Committee
may have.
Biography for Gregory B. Cade
Gregory B. Cade is the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA)
Assistant Administrator (Fire Administrator) for the U.S. Fire
Administration (USFA). Appointed in May 2007, Assistant Administrator
Cade is responsible for supporting State and local fire service
programs as well as implementing FEMA Administrator R. David Paulison's
initiatives for emergency readiness, firefighter training, and
equipment.
Before accepting this post, Assistant Administrator Cade was the
Fire Chief/Emergency Services Coordinator of the City of Virginia Beach
(VA) Fire Department. From 1998-2007, he managed 900 personnel with a
$38 million operating budget. He also oversaw the Virginia Task Force 2
Urban Search and Rescue Team and operated 19 fire/rescue stations
covering 311 square miles of land and 35 miles of Atlantic and
Chesapeake coastline out to the international line.
Assistant Administrator Cade has 39 years of fire and rescue
services experience. He began his career in Prince George's County
Maryland as an entry-level firefighter. He served as a risk manager,
budget analyst, and training instructor, rising through the ranks to
his last assignment as the Bureau Chief, Division of Fire/Rescue before
leaving and becoming Fire Chief of the City of Hampton (VA) in 1992.
His emergency management experience includes activities related to
preparing for, responding to, and recovering from several
Presidentially-declared man-made and natural disasters.
Assistant Administrator Cade earned a Bachelor of Science from the
University of Maryland and completed the Program for Senior Executives
in State and Local Government at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy
School of Government. He received the Victoria J. Adams Award for
Excellence in Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action from the
Virginia Department of Fire Programs in 1997 and holds positions in
several professional associations. Assistant Administrator is also past
Vice President of the National Society of Executive Fire Officers.
Chairman Wu. Thank you. We will do questions all together
at the end of all the witness testimony. Next, Dr. Sunder,
please proceed.
STATEMENT OF DR. SIVARAJ SHYAM SUNDER, DIRECTOR, BUILDING AND
FIRE RESEARCH LABORATORY, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND
TECHNOLOGY, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Dr. Sunder. Thank you Chairman Wu, and Dr. Gingrey and
Members of the Subcommittee. NIST fire research is focused on
reducing losses and risk by advancing innovative fire
protection technologies and increasing the safety of buildings
that are threatened by fire, and we do that by improving
building and fire codes, standards, and practices. Our work is
aimed at filling research gaps in areas such as how the fire-
related characteristics of modern furnishings, building
materials, and designs affect the time available for safely
exiting buildings, particularly in high-rise buildings and for
impaired populations, including those in hospitals, nursing
homes, residences or other facilities.
Our research also provides the science, performance
measures, and tools critical to developing and implementing new
and emerging technologies that would improve the effectiveness
and safety of firefighters. They go beyond developing tools and
methods by actually getting our results into the hands of
firefighters, incident commanders, and other emergency
responders.
In addition, NIST is working on science-based approaches
for limiting fire growth and spread, particularly in
residential settings, where the vast majority of fire deaths
occur, by reducing the flammability of the materials and
products within our homes, by reliably detecting a fire in its
nascent state, and by automatically suppressing fires once they
develop.
As part of the President's American Competitiveness
Initiative, or ACI, we are developing tools for reducing
community losses from fires at the wildland-urban interface.
These tools will assist communities all across the U.S. in
assessing their risk for such fires and choosing economically-
balanced mitigation strategies. Also as part of the ACI, NIST
has begun examining fire safety issues associated with the
emerging use of hydrogen as a fuel in transportation and in
domestic and commercial power generation.
NIST will provide the scientific and technical information
to support the development of codes and standards for the
design of engineered containment and transport systems and for
mitigating potential fire and explosion hazards in both the
residential and commercial sectors.
Finally, NIST's Fire Research Grant Program has been the
primary federal source for fire research at universities for
the past 30 years and a source for training in the next
generation of fire protection engineers and researchers.
Our fire research priorities are determined in a deliberate
and inclusive fashion. We work with a broad range of
industries, codes and standards, developing organizations, fire
service organizations, professional societies, public safety
groups, universities and other government agencies. We identify
the needs of these customers and the capabilities of our
research collaborators, both here and abroad, through
workshops, direct contact, technical meetings, roadmaps, and
established national priorities. Our Fire Research Program
evolves from these needs after considering the potential impact
and probability of success that fit to our mission, match of
the technical challenges to the staff capabilities, and the
potential for leveraging the investment. There are many
examples of how our research program is coordinated with the
U.S. Fire Administration. We regularly hold joint workshops
with USFA that includes representatives from the fire service
industry and other laboratories to establish priorities for
fire service research. The results of these workshops have
helped set the current research agenda for both NIST and USFA.
Our research plans are coordinated through an established
liaison arrangement where in fact a NIST employee spends about
a day a week at USFA. Together, we jointly fund high priority
research topics, transfer research results to the fire service,
and conduct investigations of firefighter fatalities. Recent
research projects include characterizing the performance of
personal protective equipment, developing structural collapse
prediction technology, and assembling the components of virtual
firefighter training for next generation firefighting.
We are also working together to analyze the recent
Charleston furniture store fire that resulted in nine
firefighter fatalities. Our research results are transferred to
the fire service, we have training courses at the National Fire
Academy, and we produce an electronic newsletter for fire
service personnel called Fire.Gov, an electronic publication
distributed directly to fire departments and training
academies. Our research has been used to develop entire courses
or has been integrated into course modules at the fire academy.
We also continue to work closely with standards development
organizations. Our research has provided the technical basis
for new NFPA standard for the Personal Alert Safety System, or
PASS device, that is used by firefighters. In a similar
fashion, our research has provided the technical basis for the
development of new NFPA standards for the effective use of
thermal imagers for tracking fire spread and locating fallen
firefighters and building occupants.
In summary, we are proud of our role as a partner in
science and technology resource for USFA helping to play a
significant role in the development of science-based consensus
standards and reliable, safe, and effective firefighting
equipment and techniques in the United States. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Sunder follows:]
Prepared Statement of Sivaraj Shyam Sunder
Chairman Wu, Dr. Gingrey, and Members of the Subcommittee, I
appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the
fire research program at the National Institute of Standards and
Technology's (NIST) Building and Fire Research Lab (BFRL). NIST
conducts research to promote U.S. innovation and industrial
competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards, and
technology in ways that enhance economic security and improve our
quality of life. BFRL supports this mission by anticipating and meeting
these needs for the U.S. building and fire safety industries. In
relation to fire research, NIST was given specific authority under the
Federal Fire Prevention and Control Act of 1974 as amended (15 U.S.C.
278f(a) ) for ``performing and supporting research on all aspects of
fire with the aim of providing scientific and technical knowledge
applicable to the prevention and control of fires.''
Fire remains a serious problem for our country as evidenced by the
continuing high rates of fire deaths in the U.S. Each year, more than
3000 people die in fires and per capita fire deaths are 70 percent
higher in the U.S. than in the European Union. Fire codes that are
overly prescriptive--that is, detailed and restrictive--can increase
the cost of construction and major renovations and possibly stifle
innovative new approaches without actually improving the fire safety of
the building and its occupants. There is much that we do not know about
how the fire-related characteristics of modern furnishings, building
materials, and designs affect the time available for safely exiting
buildings. This is an issue of particular concern in high rise office
buildings and for impaired populations, including those in hospitals,
nursing homes, residences, or other facilities. Manmade fire threats--
whether they are accidental, intentional, or due to new higher risk
technologies--increase the need for strategies to prevent or limit the
flammability of materials and structures or to improve the ability of
occupants to exit or survive in buildings where fires take place.
NIST fire research is focused on reducing losses and risk by
advancing innovative fire protection technologies and increasing the
safety of buildings threatened by fire. This research has been
highlighted as a critical need in a National Academies study (Making
the Nation Safe from Fire, a Path Forward in Research, National
Academies Press, 2003).
In addition to improving fire safety in buildings, NIST research
provides the science and performance measures that are critical for
developing and implementing the new technologies necessary to improve
the effectiveness and safety of emergency responders. This includes
developing science-based standards and testing protocols, firefighter
training tools, and innovative new technologies. We go beyond
developing new tools and methods--NIST gets its research results into
the hands of firefighters, incident commanders, and other emergency
responders. Over the last few years, NIST research has been used to
develop entire courses or has been integrated into modules for use in
courses at the United States Fire Administration's (USFA) National Fire
Academy (NFA), including the courses Introduction to Fire Dynamics and
Fire Modeling, Management of Fire Prevention Programs, and Evaluating
Performance Based Designs, as well as several courses in the NFA's
Degrees at a Distance Program.
NIST is developing strategies for cost-effectively reducing the
Nation's fire losses, both human and financial, based on approaches for
limiting fire growth and spread. The vast majority of fire deaths occur
in residential settings. The key to reducing fire deaths lies in
reducing the chance for a fire to reach ``flashover,'' a condition in
which the entire contents of a room begin to burn simultaneously and
produce the toxic smoke and hot gases that can kill people at remote
locations within a building. Flashover can be controlled by: 1)
reducing the flammability of the materials and products within our
homes, 2) reliably detecting a fire in its nascent state, and 3)
automatic suppression systems. NIST researchers have been pursuing--and
succeeding--in all three avenues for reducing the likelihood of
flashover.
NIST research supports improvements to building and fire codes,
standards, and practices that reduce the impact of extreme threats to
the safety of buildings, their occupants and emergency responders. As
part of the President's American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI), NIST
is developing tools for reducing community losses in wildland-urban
interface fires. The U.S. faces extreme losses of life and property due
to wildland-urban fire. Since 1990 in Colorado, over 450,000 acres, 484
homes and 25 lives were lost to wildland-urban fires.\1\ In 2003 alone
in California, fires cost an estimated $2 billion in insured damages
and destroyed more than 3,600 homes.\2\ During 2000-2003, the cost to
federal agencies fighting wildland fires averaged $1.3 billion annually
(in 2004 dollars).\3\ The NIST tools will assist communities all across
the U.S. in their fire risk assessment and choices of economically-
balanced mitigation strategies that limit the ignition of residences
and improve firefighter and community safety.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ http://csfs.colostate.edu/library/pdfs/fire/statistics/
fire<INF>-</INF>history.pdf
\2\ http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05380.pdf
\3\ Ibid.
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Issues associated with the emerging use of hydrogen as a fuel in
transportation and domestic/commercial power generation are also being
examined by NIST as part of the ACI. NIST is working to remove
technical barriers that impede the implementation of a hydrogen
economy, and to provide the scientific and technical information,
needed to support the development of codes and standards for the design
of engineered containment and transport systems, and provisions for the
mitigation of potential fire and explosion hazards in both the
residential and commercial sectors.
NIST Fire Grants Program
For the past 30 years, NIST has been supporting university research
through its fire grants program--currently funded at $1.3 million per
year. NIST relies on the special expertise of the academic community to
assist in surmounting the complex physical, sociological, and economic
barriers to significantly reducing U.S. fire losses. This program has
been the primary federal source for fire research in universities and a
source for training the next generation of fire protection engineers
and researchers.
Fire Research Agenda Strategic Approach
NIST research priorities are determined in a deliberate and
inclusive fashion. We work with a broad range of industries (e.g.,
building materials and contents manufacturers, fire protection
equipment suppliers), codes and standards developing organizations
(e.g., International Code Council (ICC), National Fire Protection
Association (NFPA), American Society for Testing and Materials
International (ASTMI), Underwriters Laboratories (UL), FM Approvals (a
business unit of FM Global for commercial property and building
insurance), fire service organizations (e.g., International Association
of Fire Chiefs (IAFC), International Association of Fire Fighters
(IAFF), National Association of State Fire Marshals (NASFM),
International Association of Arson Investigators (IAAI), Conference of
Fire Safety Instructors (CFSI), National Fallen Firefighters Foundation
(NFFF) ), professional societies (e.g., Society of Fire Protection
Engineers (SFPE), American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME),
American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) ), public safety groups
(e.g., Skyscraper Safety Campaign, Operation Life Safety, Home Safety
Council, Center for Campus Fire Safety), universities, and other
government agencies--including USFA, Consumer Product Safety Commission
(CPSC), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Forest Service
(USFS), Department of Transportation (DOT), Department of Defense
(DOD), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), National
Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), and the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF).
NIST identifies the needs of these customers and the capabilities
of our collaborators (national and international) through workshops,
direct contact at technical meetings, roadmaps, and established
national priorities. The NIST fire research program evolves from these
needs after considering the potential impact and probability of
success, the fit to the NIST mission, the match of the technical
challenge to staff capabilities, and the potential for leveraging the
investment.
The Federal Fire Prevention and Control Act of 1974 as amended (15
U.S.C. 278f(a) ) specifically stipulates that ``the content and
priorities of the [NIST] research program shall be determined in
consultation with the Administrator of the United States Fire
Administration.'' There are many examples of how the NIST research
program is coordinated with the USFA.
NIST regularly hosts joint workshops with USFA that include
representatives from the fire service, industry, and other laboratories
to establish priorities for fire service research. Specific examples
include the National Fire Service Research Agenda Symposium hosted
jointly with USFA in Emmitsburg, MD; the National Fire Fighter Life
Safety Summit hosted by USFA; and workshops hosted by the National
Fallen Fighters Foundation in Tampa, FL; Indianapolis, IN; San Diego,
CA; and Washington, DC. The results of these workshops have helped set
the current research agenda for both NIST and USFA. Other federal
programs, such as the DHS Assistance to Firefighter Grants, are
incorporating these prioritized research areas as part of their
proposal evaluation criteria. Similar workshops are being considered to
establish priorities and timelines for the development of measurements,
test methods, and consensus standards.
NIST's and USFA's research plans are coordinated through an
established liaison arrangement. Together, NIST and USFA jointly fund
high-priority research topics, transfer research results to the fire
service, and conduct investigations of firefighter fatalities. Recent
research projects include characterizing the performance of personal
protective equipment, developing structural collapse prediction
technology, and assembling the components of a virtual firefighter
trainer for next generation firefighting. The research results are
transferred to the fire service via incorporation into training courses
at the National Fire Academy, an electronic newsletter for fire service
personnel (FIRE.Gov), and electronic publications distributed directly
to fire departments and training academies. A USFA employee
participated as a member of the team formed and led by NIST under the
National Construction Safety Team Act to perform a building and fire
safety investigation of the Rhode Island Station Nightclub fire in
2003. Currently, USFA and NIST are working together to analyze the
Charleston furniture store fire that resulted in nine firefighter
fatalities. The objectives of this study are to understand the unusual
and rapid fire spread, the impact of smoke and gases on human life, the
effect of ventilation on fire growth and roof collapse, and the
possible influence of a sprinkler system had one been installed. In
addition, the study is considering fire service response and operations
with a focus on establishing a timeline for reconstructing the fire,
and to identify areas in building and fire codes, standards, and
practices that warrant revision. The recommendations from these kinds
of investigations are communicated to the fire service and national
voluntary consensus standards organizations to improve the safety of
first responders and the public.
NIST continues to work closely with standards organizations to
support the development of consensus standards. NIST provides an
unbiased source of technical information and data, which is critical to
the success of standards development. Recent NIST research has
characterized the performance of personal alert safety systems (PASS),
demonstrating that serious flaws can cause the alarm signal generator
to failed at high temperatures--precisely when this safety equipment is
most needed. Based on data collected at NIST, a joint safety warning
was issued nationwide by USFA, NIST, NIOSH, NFPA, IAFC, and IAFF. NIST
research has provided the technical basis for rewriting the test
standards for the PASS device, increasing the likelihood that the
device will work under the extreme conditions typical of a fire
environment.
In a similar fashion, NIST research funded internally and by USFA
and DHS has led to the development of a complete suite of performance
metrics and standard test protocols for thermal imagers for first
responder applications. During the last five years, thermal imaging
cameras have become more readily available to fire departments for
tracking fire spread and locating fallen firefighters or building
occupants. Previously, there were no performance metrics or standard
test protocols for firefighter thermal imagers. The NIST research has
provided the technical basis for the development of a new NFPA standard
for thermal imagers. With this standard in place, the performance of
this critical piece of technology can be evaluated to ensure that
thermal imagers are as effective as possible.
Each year, a significant number of firefighter fatalities are due
to structural collapse. USFA- and NIST-funded research has identified a
promising new technology to continuously monitor the structural
integrity of buildings experiencing fire. This emerging technology,
when fully developed, could provide incident commanders with early
warning of an impending collapse, allowing first responders more time
to safely evacuate from the interior of structures before collapse
occurs.
Positive pressure ventilation fans are available to many fire
departments and could provide cooler and smoke-free stairwells for
firefighter operations or occupant egress. Unfortunately, in the past,
this ventilation technology has been under-utilized due to lack of
scientific data on the interaction between ventilation and fire growth.
A current USFA and NIST collaborative effort has characterized the fan/
building interaction in single story residential structures, high rise
apartment/office structures, and warehouse type structures. NIST
research provides a science-based set of guidelines for the deployment
and operation of positive pressure ventilation fans to improve the
effectiveness of firefighting activities and evacuation of building
occupants.
As the Nation's primary measurement laboratory, NIST is proud of
its roles as a partner and science and technology resource for USFA,
helping to play a significant role in the development of science-based
consensus standards and reliable, safe, and effective firefighting
equipment and techniques.
I am delighted to have had the opportunity to describe the fire
research program at NIST. The problems we tackle affect people every
day, and the technical challenges require the resources and expertise
of institutions like NIST, working together with the USFA and other
organizations to improve fire safety and the effectiveness of
firefighting in America.
Thank you and I would be happy to answer any of your questions.
Biography for Sivaraj Shyam Sunder
Dr. Shyam Sunder is Director of the Building and Fire Research
Laboratory (BFRL) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST).
BFRL has an annual operating budget of about $42 million and its
staff includes about 175 federal employees and 100 research associates
and guest researchers from industry, universities, and foreign
laboratories.
Dr. Sunder also:
<bullet> is the lead investigator for the federal building and
fire safety investigation of the World Trade Center disaster;
<bullet> oversees NIST activities as lead agency for the
National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP); and
<bullet> co-chairs the National Science and Technology
Council's (NSTC) Subcommittee on Buildings Technology (SBT)
Research and Development.
From June 1996 to December 1997, Dr. Sunder was on assignment to
the Program Office, the principal staff office of the NIST Director,
first as a Program Analyst and later as the Senior Program Analyst for
NIST.
Dr. Sunder was appointed Chief of the Structures Division in
January 1998 and Chief of the Materials and Construction Research
Division in June 2002. He was appointed Acting Deputy Director of BFRL
in March 2004, Deputy Director of BFRL in June 2005, and Acting
Director of BFRL in July 2006.
Prior to joining NIST in 1994, Dr. Sunder held a succession of
positions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) beginning
in 1980: Instructor, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor,
principal research scientist, and senior research scientist.
Dr. Sunder holds a Bachelor of Technology (Honors) degree in civil
engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (1977), a
Master of Science degree in civil engineering from MIT (1979), and a
Doctor of Science degree in structural engineering from MIT (1981).
Dr. Sunder's awards include the Gilbert W. Winslow Career
Development Chair (1985-87) and the Doherty Professorship in Ocean
Utilization (1987-89) from MIT, the Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering
Research Prize (1991) from the American Society of Civil Engineers, the
Equal Employment Opportunity Award (1997) from NIST, and the Gold Medal
Award (2005) for his distinguished leadership of the federal building
and fire safety investigation of the World Trade Center disaster from
the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Chairman Wu. Thank you, Dr. Sunder. Chief Westermann?
STATEMENT OF MR. STEVEN P. WESTERMANN, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF FIRE
OFFICER, INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FIRE CHIEFS
Mr. Westermann. Good morning, Chairman Wu, Ranking Member
Gingrey, and Members of the Committee. As chief of the Central
Jackson County Fire District in Missouri and President of the
nearly 13,000 members of the International Association of Fire
Chiefs, it is a true honor to be here as we begin the process
of reauthorization and to discuss the USFA and the priorities
of the Nation's fire service.
The USFA plays a major role in preparing the fire service
for all hazards. The mission of the USFA is to reduce life and
economic loss to fire and related emergencies through
leadership, coordination, and support. The major focus of the
USFA's activities is the National Fire Academy. In fiscal year
2007, the NFA trained over 8,000 fire and emergency service
officers on campus and over 76,000 off-campus and distance-
learning to respond to regional and national incidents
involving all hazards. The USFA also plays important roles in
educating the public about fire safety and prevention,
collecting, analyzing, and disseminating fire information and
partnering with the public and private sector to conduct
research on new fire-related technologies.
In fiscal year 2007, Congress appropriated $46.8 million
for the USFA, an increase of $2.3 million above fiscal year
2006 level. Both the House and Senate have passed appropriation
bills containing $43.3 million for the USFA in fiscal year
2008. Congress authorized $68.8 million for the USFA in fiscal
year 2008. We urge the Committee to reauthorize the USFA in '09
as $70 million with a five-year authorization to ensure long-
term funding stability for the Agency.
The National Fire Incident Reporting System, known as
NFIRS, is an essential tool for America's fire service. The
NFIRS is the world's largest, national, annual database for
fire and emergency incident information. Over 21,000 fire
departments report to the NFIRS each year. These departments
report an average of 14 million incidents and one million fires
each year. The NFIRS is designed to receive data pertaining to
all incidents in order to cover the full-range of fire
department activities.
Unfortunately, the NFIRS is not being utilized to its
fullest potential. The current format requires fire departments
to submit data on paper or as computer files to the states,
which then periodically upload the data to the USFA. Under the
current system, there can be a delay of 12 and 18 months in
compiling national data. In addition, NFIRS only includes about
half of the reported fires that occur annually, and this simply
is not acceptable. Therefore, the IAFC would like Congress to
authorize $3 million over three years for the USFA to enhance
the NFIRS data collection system and transform it into a real-
time web reporting tool. While we do not expect overnight fire
data analysis, the collection of more, timelier data may help
to reduce the current 12- to 18-month delay and may make it
easier to distinguish major trends. For example, earlier this
year, a number of fires caused multiple fatalities in New York
and the Midwest. Without timely data from NFIRS, it was
difficult to ascertain whether these deaths were a record
number, a growing trend, or simply an anomaly receiving
heightened media attention.
The Senate appropriated $1 million to modernize the NFIRS
in H.R. 2638, the fiscal year 2008 Department of Homeland
Security Appropriations bill. We hope that Congress will pass
this appropriation and authorize the USFA reauthorization bill.
USFA brings the perspective of the front-line firefighter
to policy discussions. As the DHS develops federal policies
such as National Response Framework, USFA should continue to be
involved to ensure that these policies are practicable for the
local first responders during an emergency, terrorist attack,
or disaster.
The ISC urges the Committee to support the USFA's current
seat at the National Operations Center. Operating 24 hours a
day, 365 days a year, the NOC serves as the Nation's nerve
center for information sharing in domestic incident management.
The USFA can play a critical role in the NOC by obtaining
information from fire departments around the country for fusion
with other potential threat information. In addition, the USFA
can relay on information of a possible threat to a local fire
department. For example, if there was a threat of a chlorine
bomb in the Kansas City area, the NOC would inform me of that
threat so that the hazmat teams in the Kansas City area would
be on heightened alert status.
The ISC also supports the USFA's current plan to educate
the public about the lifesaving benefits of residential fire
sprinklers. Currently, only about two percent of American homes
have fire sprinklers. However, fire sprinklers can play a major
role in saving lives and preventing property damage. According
to the National Fire Protection Association, when sprinklers
are present in structures, the fire death rate per 1,000
reported structure fires is lower by at least 57 percent and
the rate of property damage per reported structure fire is
lower by one-third to two-thirds. The installation of more fire
sprinklers in homes should reduce both civilian and firefighter
deaths as well as reduce property damage.
A growing challenge for the fire service is the growth of
the wildland-urban interface. As residential growth expands
into traditionally rural areas, there is an increase in the
amount of property damage that has occurred from fires. The
annual estimated costs for combating wildland fires exceeds
$500 million for local governments and $2 billion for State and
federal agencies, a large portion of which is in the wildland
interface. Insurance companies spend over $250 million per year
covering the damage caused by interface fires.
Many fire departments, especially those not in the West,
are just beginning to recognize the challenges of fighting
fires in the WUI. By working more closely with the U.S.
Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Interior, the
USFA can become a leading agency in educating the traditionally
structural fire departments about how to safely and effectively
respond to fires in the interface and help educate the public
about fire prevention and mitigation in the interface.
I know I am out of time, but there is one more critical
area that we do need to discuss, and that is EMS. EMS is an
important part of the U.S. fire service. According to the
USFA's ``Four Years Later--A Second Needs Assessment,'' 67
percent of the responding fire departments provide EMS. And of
all the major metropolitan areas, 100 percent of those
departments provide EMS. USFA should educate the DHS
leadership, other federal agencies, and the public about the
role of the fire-based EMS in their areas.
And with that, we thank you again for the opportunity to
address the Committee, and on behalf of America's fire and EMS
chiefs, we look forward to working with you and the
reauthorization of the USFA.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Westermann follows:]
Prepared Statement of Steven P. Westermann
Good morning, Chairman Wu, Ranking Member Gingrey, and Members of
the Committee. I am Chief Steven P. Westermann, CFO, of the Central
Jackson County, Missouri, Fire Protection District and President of the
nearly 13,000 members of the International Association of Fire Chiefs.
The IAFC represents the leadership of America's fire, rescue, and
emergency medical services (EMS) from large, metropolitan, career fire
departments to small, rural, volunteer fire departments. Today, I would
like to thank the Committee for the opportunity to discuss the U.S.
Fire Administration (USFA) and the priorities of the Nation's fire
service.
The Fire and Emergency Service Community
America's fire and emergency services are the only organized group
of American citizens that is locally situated, staffed, trained, and
equipped to respond to all types of emergencies. There are
approximately 1.1 million men and women in the fire and emergency
services--305,150 career firefighters and 795,600 volunteer
firefighters--serving in 30,400 fire departments around the country.
They are trained to respond to all risks and hazards ranging from
earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes and floods, to acts of terrorism,
hazardous materials incidents, technical rescues, fires, and medical
emergencies.
The fire service protects America's critical infrastructure--the
electrical grid, interstate highways, railroads, pipelines, petroleum
and chemical facilities--and is, in fact, even considered part of the
critical infrastructure. The fire service protects most federal
buildings, provides mutual aid to most military bases, and protects
interstate commerce. No passenger airliner takes off from a runway that
is not protected by a fire department. The transport of hazardous
materials is an integral part of the U.S. economy, and when they spill
or ignite, the fire service responds to protect lives and clean up the
mess.
The U.S. Fire Administration
The U.S. Fire Administration plays a major role in preparing the
fire service for all hazards. The mission of the USFA is ``to reduce
life and economic loss to fire and related emergencies through
leadership, coordination, and support.'' In Fiscal Year (FY) 2007, the
USFA's National Fire Academy trained over 8,000 fire and emergency
service officers on campus and over 76,000 through off-campus and
distance-learning to respond to regional and national incidents
involving all hazards. The USFA also helps educate the public about
fire safety and prevention through partnerships with the fire service,
the media, other government agencies, and safety interest groups. Data
collection is also a vital function of the USFA, including the
collection, analysis, and dissemination of information on fires and
other emergency incidents. Finally, the USFA also works with federal
agencies, such as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)'s
Science and Technology directorate and the National Institute of
Standards and Technology, and other public and private entities to
conduct research into new technologies to improve firefighter and
public safety, and fire prevention, detection, and suppression.
For FY 2007, Congress appropriated $46.8 million for the USFA, an
increase of $2.3 million above the FY 2006 level. Both the House and
Senate have passed appropriations bills containing $43.3 million for
the USFA for FY 2008. Congress authorized $68.8 million for the USFA in
FY 2008. We urge the committee to reauthorize the USFA in FY 2009 at
$70 million with a five-year authorization to ensure long-term funding
stability for the agency.
Modernizing the National Fire Incident Reporting System
The National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) is an important
tool for America's fire service. The NFIRS is the world's largest,
national, annual database of fire and emergency incident information.
Nationally, over 21,000 fire departments report to the NFIRS each year.
These departments report an average of 14 million incidents and one
million fires each year. The NFIRS is designed to receive data
pertaining to all incidents in order to cover the full-range of fire
department activity.
To participate in the NFIRS, local fire departments fill out
reports for fires and other incidents using paper forms or computer
files. These reports are sent to a State office where the data are
validated and consolidated into a single computerized database. The
participating fire departments receive feedback reports from the State
office. Periodically, the aggregated statewide data is sent to the
National Fire Data Center at the USFA to be included in the national
database.
While the NFIRS system is a helpful tool for the fire service, it
is not being utilized to its potential. The current format requires
fire departments to submit data on paper or as computer files to the
states, which then periodically upload the data to the USFA. Under the
current system, there can be a delay of between 12 and 18 months in
compiling national data. In addition, the NFIRS only includes about
half of the reported fires that occur annually. Without accurate and
timely information, the NFIRS system cannot correctly produce a timely
analysis of fire damage in the U.S., and can only produce historical
information based on half of the actual fire incidents.
The current NFIRS process creates long delays in getting fire data
into the national reporting system, and creates the potential for
decision-makers to make policy using old or incomplete information. For
example, there were a number of fires in early 2007 that caused
multiple fatalities in New York and the Midwest. Without timely data
from the NFIRS, it was difficult to ascertain if these deaths were a
record number, a growing trend, or an anomaly receiving heightened
media attention.
The IAFC urges Congress to authorize $3 million over three years to
enhance the NFIRS data collection system and transform it into a real-
time web reporting tool. While we understand that it is not possible to
analyze fire data overnight, we believe that it is possible to close
the 12- to 18-month delay by making the system easier and more user-
friendly for inputting data. The Senate appropriated $1 million to
modernize the NFIRS in H.R. 2638, the FY 2008 Department of Homeland
Security Appropriations bill and we hope that the USFA reauthorization
bill will include language authorizing this project.
The Role of the USFA in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Considering its unique relationship, the USFA can play an important
role in influencing DHS' preparedness and response policies. In the
post-9/11 world, a number of federal policies affect the local fire
department, including the National Preparedness Guidelines, the
National Infrastructure Preparedness Plan, the National Incident
Management System and the new National Response Framework. It is
important to ensure that these federal policies are practicable for the
local first responder during an emergency, terrorist attack or
disaster. The USFA brings the perspective of the front-line firefighter
to policy discussions.
Currently, the USFA staffs a seat at the National Operations Center
(NOC). The NOC serves as the Nation's nerve center for information
sharing and domestic incident management. Operating 24 hours a day, 365
days a year, the NOC collects and fuses information from a wide variety
of sources to help deter, detect, and aid in the response to terrorist
attacks and natural disasters. The USFA can play an important role in
the NOC by obtaining information from different fire departments around
the country and making sure that it is fused with other information
regarding a possible threat. In addition, the USFA can relay
information on a possible threat to a local fire department. For
example, if there was a threat of a chlorine bomb in Kansas City, the
NOC could inform me of that threat so that the hazmat teams in the
Kansas City area would be ready to respond.
It is important to ensure that the USFA is adequately funded to
perform its DHS role. By having more policy staff, the agency can play
a stronger role in policy discussions here in Washington. The NOC
position also is a vital resource for the fire service that needs
funding.
Residential Sprinkler Campaign
The USFA is engaged in an aggressive plan to advocate the increased
use of residential fire sprinklers. Currently, only about two percent
of American homes have fire sprinklers. However, fire sprinklers can
play a major role in saving lives and preventing property damage.
According to the National Fire Protection Association, ``when
sprinklers are present in structures. . ., the fire death rate per
1,000 reported structure fires is lower by at least 57 percent and the
rate of property damage per reported structure fire is lower by one-
third to two-thirds (34-68 percent).'' The USFA's public education
program can inform the public about the advantages of installing fire
sprinklers in homes, which should reduce both civilian and firefighter
deaths and property damage resulting from fires.
Wildland Fires
A growing challenge for the fire service is the growth of the
wildland-urban interface (WUI). As residential growth expands into
traditionally rural areas, there is an increase in the amount of
property damage that has occurred from fires. The annual estimated
costs for combating wildland fires exceed $500 million for local
governments and $2 billion for State and federal agencies, a large
portion of which is in the WUI. In addition, insurance companies spend
over $250 million per year in covering the damage caused by WUI fires.
Many fire departments, especially those not in the West, are just
beginning to recognize the challenges of fighting fires in the WUI.
There are many tactical differences between fighting a structural fire
and a wildland fire. The USFA has traditionally developed strong
relationships with the structural departments around the country. By
working more closely with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S.
Department of Interior, the USFA can become the leading agency in
educating the traditionally structural fire departments about how to
safely and effectively respond to fire in the interface and help
educate the public about fire prevention and mitigation in the WUI.
Emergency Medical Services
It is important to recognize that EMS is an important part of the
U.S. fire service. According to the USFA's ``Four Years Later--A Second
Needs Assessment,'' 67 percent of the responding fire departments
provide emergency medical service. In communities with populations over
one million people (major metropolitan areas), 100 percent of the
departments provide EMS. As the Nation develops policies to deal with
threats such as large-scale terrorist attacks and pandemic influenza,
the USFA can play a role in helping the fire service and fire-based EMS
prepare for these threats. In addition, the USFA can help to educate
the DHS leadership, other federal agencies, and the public about the
role of fire-based EMS in their areas.
Conclusion
Thank you again for the opportunity to address this committee. On
behalf of America's fire-EMS chiefs, I would like to thank you for your
continued support. I look forward to working with you as the Committee
takes action to reauthorize the USFA.
Biography for Steven P. Westermann
Chief Westermann has served as Chief of Department to the Central
Jackson County Fire Protection District since 1988 and has been in the
fire service since 1972. He has been a member of the IAFC since 1987
and prior to serving as President, he served as the International
Director for the Missouri Valley Division. He has also served on the
IAFC's NFPA 1710 Implementation Guide Task Force, chaired the National
Policy Centers Task Force and currently serves on the Labor Management
Initiative committee. He has served as President of both the Heart of
America Kansas City Metro Fire Chiefs Council and the Missouri
Association of Fire Chiefs. Westermann has a Master's in Public
Administration from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, is an EFO
graduate and a graduate of the Senior Executives in State and Local
Government program at Harvard University.
Chairman Wu. Thank you very much, Chief Westermann. Captain
Livingston, please proceed.
STATEMENT OF CAPTAIN ROBERT LIVINGSTON, LEGISLATIVE DIRECTOR OF
THE OREGON STATE COUNCIL OF FIRE FIGHTERS, INTERNATIONAL
ASSOCIATION OF FIRE FIGHTERS
Mr. Livingston. Chairman Wu, Ranking Member Gingrey, and
Members of the Committee, my name is Bob Livingston. I'm a
Captain in the Salem, Oregon Fire Department and a proud member
of the International Association of Fire Fighters. I am pleased
to appear before you today on behalf of IAFF General President
Harold Schaitberger and the more than a quarter-million full-
time emergency response personnel who comprise our
organization.
Whether responding to everyday emergencies or major
disasters, America's professional firefighters and emergency
medical personnel are on the front lines every day working
tirelessly to save lives and to protect public safety.
Today's professional firefighter is an all-purpose
emergency responder, trained in such specialized disciplines as
emergency medical care, hazardous/WMD materials response and
technical rescue. It is from this perspective, as America's
frontline domestic defenders, that we view the mission and
programs of the United States Fire Administration.
As the role of firefighters has expanded to meet the needs
of their communities and their citizens, so too must the role
of the USFA evolve to meet the needs of the 21st century fire
service.
The USFA of the 21st century must evolve to fully embrace
and support the fire service's role in emergency medical
services, hazmat, and WMD response.
Pre-hospital 9-1-1 emergency response has become a
principal duty of the fire service such that today's fire
service provides first medical response for virtually every
community in America. Similarly, the growing number and
dangerous nature of incidents involving hazardous materials has
elevated the importance of hazmat training and preparedness
within the fire service. USFA must fully integrate EMS and
hazmat/WMD training and preparedness into its missions and
programs. While confident that USFA appreciates the importance
of expanding its work in these arenas, we remain concerned that
these efforts are not widely recognized.
Within the Federal Government, for example, dozens of
federal agencies administer programs and provide funding that
impacts the fire service. Yet, too often these agencies have
little knowledge about who we are and what we do. USFA should
therefore bolster its efforts to educate others including
agencies within the Federal Government about the duties of the
modern fire service, especially the crucial role firefighters
play in providing emergency medical services, hazmat, and WMD
preparedness.
USFA has successfully furthered the professional
development of the fire service through the Fire Academy. To
expand the Academy's reach, USFA should expand its remote
training and education programs. Federally funded training
programs currently offered by the IAFF provide an excellent
model for the sort of delivery system USFA could utilize toward
this end.
By partnering with entities that have effective local
delivery systems such as the IAFF, USFA could offer Academy
courses to those for whom traveling to Emmitsburg is
impractical. In addition to enhancing its many ongoing
worthwhile projects, we believe there is one significant new
initiative that USFA should undertake. Since its inception,
USFA has helped reduce both the number of fires, as well as the
number of civilian deaths from fire. Unfortunately, far less
progress has been made reducing line-of-duty deaths among
firefighters.
While it will never be possible to eliminate line-of-duty
deaths, we must commit to significantly reducing the number of
firefighter fatalities. We understand much of what must be done
to protect firefighters: providing adequate training and
equipment, using safe operating procedures and staffing levels
and ensuring the physical and mental health of firefighters.
Yet, despite the advocacy of USFA and non-profit organizations,
the fire service has been slow to adopt practices that would
save lives. Although some departments have embraced safe
practices and procedures, the traditional approach to institute
change within the fire service from the bottom up has largely
failed. In my home town of Salem, Oregon, for example,
communications between police and fire personnel via portable
radio are currently impossible. While Salem is working
expeditiously to implement a plan to overcome its communication
challenges, many communities have yet to address the need for
public safety interoperability. It doesn't have to be this way.
The time has come for the Federal Government to take a bold and
pro-active role to reduce the number of firefighter fatalities
through the adoption of national standards for safe firefighter
operations, training, staffing, and fitness. We needn't
recreate the wheel; the National Fire Protection Association
has developed widely respected fire safety codes and standards
using an open consensus-based development process. Similarly,
Project 25 provides for common system standards to achieve
interoperability. USFA should make it part of its core mission
to ensure every fire department in America complies with
national fire safety standards, and we should use the programs
and resources of the Federal Government to help achieve this
goal.
In closing, on behalf of the IAFF, I appreciate the
opportunity to testify on the future of the U.S. Fire
Administration. As you continue working to reauthorize USFA, we
urge you to consider enhancing its programs and services to
meet the needs of the modern fire service, including an
increased emphasis on EMS, hazmat, WMD response. Furthermore,
we hope the Committee will give serious consideration to novel
ways by which USFA may help reduce the number of firefighter
deaths, including advocating for the adoption of and compliance
with national standards for safe firefighting. I thank the
Committee and look forward to your questions.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Livingston follows:]
Prepared Statement of Robert Livingston
Thank you Chairman Wu, Ranking Member Gingrey, and distinguished
Members of the Committee for the opportunity to testify before you
today. My name is Bob Livingston. I serve as a Captain in the Salem,
Oregon Fire Department, and I am also a proud member of the
International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF). I am pleased to
appear before you today on behalf of IAFF General President Harold
Schaitberger and the more than quarter million full-time emergency
response personnel who comprise our organization.
Protecting over 85 percent of the Nation's population, America's
professional firefighters and emergency medical personnel are on the
front lines every day working tirelessly to save lives and protect the
public safety. Whether responding to everyday emergencies or large-
scale disasters, be it massive flooding in the Gulf Coast, a terrorist
attack in New York, a vehicle crash in Cleveland, a hazardous chemical
release in North Carolina, or a residential fire in Salem, the men and
women of the IAFF are first to arrive on the scene and the last to
leave.
Our members' dedication is matched only by the technical expertise
they bring to their mission. Today's professional firefighter is an
all-purpose emergency responder trained in such specialized disciplines
as emergency medical care, hazardous/WMD materials response and high-
angle, confined space and water rescue.
The days of firefighters whose primary function was to ``put the
wet stuff on the red stuff'' are long gone. The men and women of the
21st Century fire service have evolved into highly-trained, highly
skilled all-purpose emergency responders with broad responsibilities.
It is from this unique perspective as America's frontline domestic
defenders that we view the mission, activities and services of the
United States Fire Administration (USFA).
Originally created to ensure a federal focus on the national fire
problem described in the original America Burning report, Congress
tasked the USFA with reducing the incidence of death, injury and
property loss from fire through public education, data collection,
research and training. But as firefighters have expanded their duties,
responsibilities, and capabilities to meet the needs of their
communities and their citizens, so too must USFA evolve to meet the
needs of the 21st Century fire service.
New Roles, New Responsibilities
Traditionally focused on the fire control and fire prevention
duties inherent to firefighting, the USFA of the 21st Century must
evolve to embrace and support the fire service's role in EMS and hazmat
response.
Pre-hospital 9-1-1 emergency response has, in recent years, become
a principal duty of the fire service such that today, the fire service
has become the first medical responder for critical illness and injury
in virtually every community in America. According to a recent survey
of the 200 largest cities in the United States, 97 percent of such
cities deliver pre-hospital 9-1-1 emergency medical response through
the fire service. Additionally, the fire service provides advanced life
support response and care in 90 percent of the thirty most populous
U.S. jurisdictions.
The prevalence of fire-based EMS throughout the United States
requires that the Fire Administration fully integrate EMS training and
preparedness into its mission. USFA must continue to offer advanced EMS
training to emergency responders as well as working to assist
responders in preparing for a mass casualty event, such as pandemics
and other disasters.
While we are confident that USFA appreciates the importance of
expanding its work in the EMS arena, we remain concerned that these
efforts are not widely recognized. Organizations and policy-makers
concerned about EMS issues have long bemoaned the absence of a ``home''
in the Federal Government for EMS, and they have advocated creation of
a new entity modeled on the USFA but devoted to EMS issues. While we
believe any such entity would be duplicative and counterproductive, we
nevertheless acknowledge that there is a perception that USFA is not
adequately focused on EMS. We therefore recommend that USFA increase
its efforts to educate the EMS community about its work in this
important area. And we further call on USFA to educate others in the
Federal Government of the critical importance and merit of fire-based
EMS.
Similarly, while America's firefighters had always been the de-
facto first responders to hazardous materials incidents, the
skyrocketing number and increasingly dangerous nature of such incidents
in recent years has elevated the importance of hazmat training and
preparedness within the fire service. According to the National Fire
Protection Association, each year, fire departments receive 354,000
calls related to hazardous materials emergency response. Furthermore,
as more and more chemicals become part of our daily lives and as the
transport of hazardous materials continues to grow, the complexity and
dangers of hazmat emergency response have multiplied.
Not only has the presence of hazardous materials in our communities
increased dramatically, but the current and ominous threat of terrorism
looms large for our nation's firefighters. The possibility that
terrorists will target shipments of hazardous materials or seek to use
other weapons of mass destruction on U.S. soil, such as biological or
chemical weapons, is very real. Faced with this reality, it is more
important than ever that USFA work to ensure that our nation's
emergency responders are properly trained and fully prepared to respond
to incidents involving hazardous materials, including weapons of mass
destruction.
Enhanced Education Delivery
The United States Fire Administration and the U.S. Fire Academy
have successfully and effectively helped to further the professional
development of the fire service through current training and
educational programs. As many firefighters and emergency medical
personnel are unable to attend on-campus programs, the Academy has
rightly moved to offer distance learning and locally sponsored delivery
through the various State fire training programs.
To expand the Academy's reach and help achieve the goal of
professional development among America's firefighters, the USFA should
expand their remote training and education programs. The federally-
funded training programs currently offered by the IAFF provide an
excellent model for the sort of delivery system USFA could utilize
towards this end. Using a cadre of instructors who are both certified
fire service instructors and certified hazmat responders, the IAFF
offers real-world training in hazardous materials response that few
institutions can match. We are able to take the training into
communities and tailor the presentations to address the unique concerns
of each fire department. Furthermore, a recent analysis by the National
Institute of Environmental Health Sciences found that the IAFF program
was the most cost-effective method of live training.
By partnering with organizations and institutions that have
established effective local delivery systems, such as the IAFF, to
offer National Fire Academy courses to those firefighters for whom
traveling to Emmitsburg is impractical or impossible, USFA could easily
and efficiently increase the number of firefighters to benefit from its
training programs.
An Advocate for the Fire Services
In addition to strengthening its own work in support of the fire
service, we believe USFA has a role to play in promoting the fire
service throughout the Federal Government. There are literally dozens
of federally agencies that administer programs and provide funding that
impact the fire service, but too often these agencies have little
background or knowledge about who we are and what we do. We therefore
urge USFA to enhance its role as an advocate for the fire service with
its sister federal agencies, especially within DHS.
USFA already has an excellent relationship with the Office of
Grants and Training. The two agencies work cooperatively administering
FIRE and SAFER grants to local fire departments. USFA should build upon
these kinds of established relationships and establish new
relationships to continue acting as an advocate for the fire service
and the expertise we can bring to bear within DHS and throughout the
Federal Government.
Protecting Fire Fighter Safety and Health
In addition to enhancing its many ongoing worthwhile projects, we
believe there is one significant new initiative that USFA should
undertake. Since its inception in 1974, the U.S. Fire Administration
has helped reduce both the number of fires as well as the number of
civilian deaths and injuries from fire. Unfortunately, far less
progress has been made reducing the number of line-of-duty deaths and
injuries among firefighters. The annual number of deaths has hovered
between 100 and 120 for many years. Given the advances in firefighting
science and technology, including advances in personal protective
equipment as well as a better understanding of the importance of safe
firefighting operations and firefighter fitness, these numbers remain
far too high and are completely unacceptable.
The problem of avoidable firefighter fatalities has been recognized
for over thirty years, yet we as a nation continue struggling to keep
the men and women who put their lives on the line every day safe. While
it will never be possible to eliminate all line-of-duty deaths, we
must, both as first responders and policy-makers, commit to
significantly reducing the number of firefighter fatalities each year.
We understand much of what must be done to prevent many firefighter
deaths. Providing adequate training and proper equipment, establishing
safe staffing levels, following safe operating procedures, ensuring the
physical and mental health of firefighters--all of these can help
reduce avoidable fatalities. Unfortunately, and despite the advocacy of
USFA and government-funded nonprofit organizations, the fire service
has been slow to adopt the many practices that would save lives and
prevent injury. Although some firefighters and some fire departments
have fully embraced many changes to ensure firefighter safety, the
traditional approach to institute change within the fire service from
the ``bottom-up'' has, to a large degree, failed.
In my home town of Salem, Oregon, for example, we experience the
same problems with communications inter-operability as do many
communities across America. Simply put, radios belonging to the Salem
Fire Department are incompatible with those belonging to the Salem
Police Department. It is currently impossible for a police officer and
a firefighter to communicate via portable radio. Obviously, this
disconnect can create a very dangerous scenario for both first
responders and the public when timely communications is of the essence.
Fortunately, Salem has a plan to overcome its communications
challenges, which it is working expeditiously to implement, but for
many communities, the significant challenge of public safety
communications remains.
It doesn't have to be this way. The time has come for the Federal
Government to take a bold and proactive role in reducing the number of
firefighter fatalities and injuries. The number one recommendation I
can make to achieve this goal is the adoption of national standards for
safe firefighter operations, training, staffing and fitness.
The good news is we needn't recreate the wheel to accomplish this
goal. The National Fire Protection Association, represented here today
by Doctor Hall, has developed over three hundred consensus codes and
standards relating to fire safety, including but not limited to
standards for safe firefighter staffing, training, and operations.
Using an open, consensus-based development process, the NFPA and NFPA
standards are widely respected throughout the fire service, as well as
the Federal Government and private sector. Similarly, via Project 25,
organizations representing public safety and the communications
industry have established common system standards for public safety
radio communications, compliance with which would go a long way towards
addressing many of our nation's inter-operability problems.
USFA should make it part of its core mission to ensure every fire
department in America complies with fire safety standards. We call on
USFA to examine how the Federal Government can use its programs and
resources to promote adherence to such standards throughout the Nation.
Some of the ways this might be accomplished include requiring fire
departments to commit to national consensus standards in order to
participate in federal programs or receive federal assistance. The
Federal Government has vast resources at its disposal to encourage
change, and we believe the full force of these resources must be
brought to bear on the goal of reducing firefighter deaths and
injuries.
In addition to promoting compliance with national fire safety
standards, more dollars must be invested in fire research and
technology. The advances achieved from federal research sponsored by
USFA, NIOSH, and other agencies have resulted in dramatically improved
equipment and technology that no doubt will have a positive impact on
firefighter safety.
And, current efforts within USFA and the Congress to improve the
accuracy of data collected by the National Fire Information Recording
System (NFIRS) will help assure a more complete picture of equipment
and technology needs. The IAFF strongly supports full funding of the
NFIRS enhancement project. By providing more accurate, real-time
information, the improved data collected as a result of the NFIRS
reform project will better inform USFA-sponsored research efforts as
well as identify additional fire and fire safety trends.
Conclusion
On behalf of the IAFF, I appreciate the opportunity to offer our
perspective on the future of the U.S. Fire Administration. As you
continue working to reauthorize the U.S. Fire Administration, we urge
you to consider enhancing the Administration's programs and services to
meet the 21st Century needs of the modern fire service, including an
increased emphasis on EMS and hazmat/WMD response. Furthermore, we hope
the Committee will give serious consideration to novel ways by which
the Administration may help reduce the number of firefighter deaths and
injuries, including advocating for the adoption of and compliance with
national standards for safe firefighting at all levels of government. I
welcome the opportunity to work with the Committee to this end.
Again, I would like to thank the Committee for its attention and I
would be happy to answer any questions you may have.
Biography for Robert Livingston
Bob Livingston is working on his 15th year with the Salem Fire
Department having served in the capacity as firefighter/paramedic and
apparatus operator. He is currently a Captain assigned to Station 1
serving the downtown area of Salem--Oregon's Capital city.
Captain Livingston has an Associate's degree in emergency medical
services and a Bachelor's degree in Public Administration from San
Diego State University (1990) where he also played four years of
intercollegiate baseball for the Aztecs. While employed with the Salem
Fire Department, Captain Livingston also earned a Master's degree in
Public Administration from Portland State University (2001) with an
emphasis in labor management relations.
Along with his higher education degrees, Mr. Livingston is
certified as an Oregon paramedic, has received instruction as an
Incident Safety Officer, NIMS, technical rescue disciplines such as
rope and confined space rescue, hazardous materials at the operations
level, and has also served as an instructor and speaker at the annual
IAFF EMS conference on the handling of public/private partnerships for
ambulance transport.
Bob has served on Oregon's Board on Public Safety Standards and
Training (BPSST) which oversees the training and standardization of
Oregon's public safety officers including police, corrections, and
firefighters in the State of Oregon. During his tenure on the board,
Bob also served as the Chair of the Fire Policy Committee and was also
a member of the Executive Board of BPSST.
For the past 12 years Bob has served as the Legislative Director
for the Oregon State Fire Fighters Council (OSFFC) advocating for the
frontline professional firefighters of Oregon at the State and federal
level. The OSFFC is the State affiliate to the IAFF and its 281,000
members represented by General President Harold Schaitberger.
Bob has been married for 17 years to his wife Suzette and has two
children--Kaitlin, 14 and a freshman at South Salem High School, and a
son Nick, a 7th grader at Leslie Middle School in Salem. A native of
Oregon, prior to being employed by the Salem Fire Department, Bob grew
up in a Southern Oregon logging town and worked both in the lumber
industry and a working cattle ranch.
Chairman Wu. Thank you very much, Captain Livingston. Chief
Henderson, please proceed.
STATEMENT OF MR. GORDON HENDERSON, DEPUTY CHIEF OF OPERATIONS,
ROME-FLOYD COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENT; PAST PRESIDENT OF THE
GEORGIA STATE FIREFIGHTERS ASSOCIATION, NATIONAL VOLUNTEER FIRE
COUNCIL
Mr. Henderson. Chairman Wu, Dr. Gingrey, and Members of the
Subcommittee, the National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC)
appreciates the opportunity to be here today to express our
views and experiences regarding the United States Fire
Administration (USFA) and the National Fire Academy (NFA).
As Dr. Gingrey mentioned earlier, I am a Past President of
the Georgia Firefighters' Association. The Georgia State
Firefighters' Association is a member of the National Volunteer
Fire Council which represents the interests of the Nation's
approximately one million volunteer firefighters and emergency
medical personnel who staff more than 30,000 fire and EMS
agencies nationwide.
Over the years, the roles associated with fire and
emergency services have greatly expanded. Gone are the days
when our primary responsibilities were putting wet stuff on the
red stuff to make black stuff, in other words, putting out
fires or transporting patients to the hospital. Fire and
emergency services personnel now routinely deal with hazardous
materials, provide emergency medical care, and perform search
and rescue in a wide range of situations. We are the first
responders to dumpster fires, automobile accidents, structure
fires, wildland fires, medical emergencies, natural disasters,
and yes, even terrorist attacks, and much more.
The USFA and NFA play a critical role in educating and
training fire, rescue and emergency personnel throughout the
United States. As fire and emergency services have been asked
to do and the USFA has expanded its course offerings, the USFA
currently offers courses in arson, communications, critical
infrastructure protection, emergency medical services and
rescue, fire prevention and planning, fire service
administration, firefighter health and safety, hazardous
materials, incident management, operations and tactics,
professional development, terrorism, wildfire and youth/
juvenile firesetter intervention.
In recognition of the wide range of activities that the
fire and emergency services perform, as well as the extensive
course offerings that the USFA already provides, the National
Volunteer Fire Council is pleased to see that the draft
reauthorizing language would expand the types of activities
that the USFA is explicitly authorized to train fire service
personnel in to include dealing with fires occurring in the
wildland/urban interface, incidents involving hazardous
materials, and advanced EMS. These are each core aspects of
fire and emergency service provision and deserve the
recognition as such.
With today's requirements for emergency personnel to
perform such a wide range of duties, they are also required to
spend more time training. For volunteers who work a full-time
job and train on nights and weekends, increases in training
times are particularly burdensome. The most visible and direct
benefit that the USFA provides to the volunteer fire service is
the hosting of the Volunteer Incentive Program at the National
Fire Academy, which combines two weeks' worth of course work
into an intensive six-day session. The compressed course
schedule is essential for many volunteers who cannot take two
weeks off to attend classes and the course topics are geared
specifically toward addressing challenges faced in many
volunteer agencies. I have listed those in the testimony. I
won't read those because of time.
In addition to the training provided on-site at NFA, the
USFA delivers training directly to local jurisdictions, either
through online tutorials or by providing states with NFA-
developed training and educational materials to make available
to local emergency responders. This allows USFA to reach a
greater number of firefighters at a relatively low cost. The
National Volunteer Fire Council is pleased to see that the
draft authorizing language would specifically allow USFA to
implement a train the trainer program, which goes beyond simply
training first responders but teaches them to deliver the
training to others.
The USFA collects, analyzes and disseminates data and
information on fires and other emergency incidents to
stakeholders and members of the public. Using this information,
decision-makers can make better-informed decisions on policies
and strategies to pursue with the end result being reduced
fire-related loss of life and property.
One of the data collection programs maintained by the USFA
is the National Fire Incident Reporting System, NFIRS. This is
the standard national reporting system used by U.S. fire
departments to report information on fires and other incidents
to which they respond. NFIRS is supposed to allow the USFA to
maintain records of incidents in a uniform manner and develop
statistics from that data.
While NFIRS is useful in its current capacity, it needs to
be updated so that reporting can be done online as well as in
written form. Currently, data reported using NFIRS software can
take more than a year to reach the USFA if it reaches at all.
Some fire departments purchase their own software to keep track
of and record incident data to USFA rather than using NFIRS.
USFA should develop a web-based reporting system that would
allow information to flow more quickly, to the states and the
USFA. The National Volunteer Fire Council is pleased that the
authorizing bill addresses this issue.
The National Volunteer Fire Council would also like to see
the authorizing bill establish some type of link between NFIRS
and the National Emergency Medical Services Information System
which is maintained by the National Highway Transportation
Safety Administration, and it collects data about incidents
that occur during EMS responses. Because the fire service
handles so many EMS calls, the National Volunteer Fire Council
believes that the USFA and NTSA should cooperate to make sure
that their respective systems are capturing data that is as
accurate and useful as possible.
In closing, the National Volunteer Fire Council
respectfully requests that the USFA be reauthorized and that
funding be placed at a level that will allow the USFA to
continue, improve, and increase the programs offered to the
fire service and other emergency services. We support the
funding level as specified in the draft authorizing language
and hope that they will not only be passed into law but fully
funded in future appropriations legislation. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Henderson follows:]
Prepared Statement of Gordon Henderson
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee, the National
Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC) appreciates the opportunity to be here
today to express our views and experiences regarding the United States
Fire Administration (USFA) and the National Fire Academy (NFA).
My name is Gordon Henderson and it is an honor and a pleasure to
appear before you today. I have been in the fire service for 32 years.
Currently, I am the Deputy Chief of Operations in the Rome-Floyd County
Fire Department in the State of Georgia. I serve as the Chairperson of
the Georgia Firefighters and Fire Chiefs Joint Legislative Committee. I
am a principle member of the National Fire Protection Association
(NFPA) 1001 National Professional Qualifications for Firefighters
Committee and also serve as the secretary. I am a Past President of the
Georgia State Firefighters Association (GSFA) and the GSFA is a member
of the NVFC, which represents the interests of the Nation's
approximately 1,000,000 volunteer fire and emergency medical personnel
who staff more than 30,000 fire and EMS agencies nationwide.
Over the years, the roles associated with the fire and emergency
services have greatly expanded. Gone are the days when our primary
responsibilities were ``putting the wet stuff on the red stuff to make
black stuff'' in other words putting out fires or transporting patients
to the hospital. Fire and emergency services personnel now routinely
deal with hazardous materials spills, provide emergency medical care,
and perform search and rescue in a wide range of situations. We are the
first responders to dumpster fires, automobile accidents, structure
fires, wildland fires, medical emergencies, natural disasters, and
yes--even terrorist attacks and much more.
The USFA and NFA play a critical role in educating and training
fire, rescue and emergency personnel throughout the United States. As
the fire and emergency services have been asked to do more, the USFA
has expanded its course offerings. The USFA currently offers courses in
arson, communications, critical infrastructure protection, emergency
medical services/rescue, fire prevention and planning, fire service
administration, firefighter health and safety, hazardous materials,
incident management, operations and tactics, professional development,
terrorism, wildfire and youth/juvenile firesetter intervention.
In recognition of the wide range of activities that the fire and
emergency services perform, as well as the extensive course offerings
that the USFA already provides, the NVFC is pleased to see that the
draft reauthorizing language would expand the types of activities that
the USFA is explicitly authorized to train fire service personnel in to
include dealing with fires occurring in the wildland/urban interface,
incidents involving hazardous materials and advanced EMS. These are
each core aspects of fire and emergency service provision and deserve
to be recognized as such.
With today's requirements for emergency personnel to perform such a
wide range of duties, they are also required to spend more time
training. For volunteers who work a full-time job and train on nights
and weekends, increases in training times are particularly burdensome.
The most visible and direct benefit that the USFA provides to the
volunteer fire service is the hosting of the Volunteer Incentive
Program (VIP) at the NFA, which combines two weeks' worth of course
work into an intensive six-day session. The compressed course schedule
is essential for many volunteers who cannot take two weeks off to
attend classes and the course topics are geared specifically toward
addressing challenges faced in many volunteer agencies. Topics of the
course include:
<bullet> Command and Control of Fire Department Operations at
Target Hazards
<bullet> Challenges for Local Training Officers
<bullet> Command and Control of Incident Operations
<bullet> Community Education Leadership
<bullet> Fire Cause Determination for Company Officers
<bullet> Fire Protection Systems for Incident Commanders
<bullet> Leadership and Administration
<bullet> Advanced Safety Operations and Management
<bullet> Leading Community Fire Prevention
<bullet> Management Strategies for Success
<bullet> Presenting Effective Public Education Programs
<bullet> Command and General Staff Functions in the Incident
Command System
<bullet> Juvenile Firesetter Intervention Specialist I & II
Leadership
In addition to the training provided on-site at NFA, the USFA
delivers training directly to local jurisdictions, either through
online tutorials or by providing states with NFA-developed training and
educational materials to be made available to local emergency
responders. This allows USFA to reach a greater number of firefighters
at a relatively low cost. The NVFC is pleased to see that the draft
authorizing language would specifically allow USFA to implement a
``train the trainer'' program, which goes beyond simply training first
responders but teaches them to deliver that training to others.
The USFA collects, analyzes and disseminates data and information
on fires and other emergency incidents to stakeholders and members of
the public. Using this information, decision-makers can make better-
informed decisions on policies and strategies to pursue with the end
result being reduced fire-related loss of life and property.
One of the data collection programs maintained by the USFA is the
National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS), this is the standard
national reporting system used by U.S. fire departments to report
information on fires and other incidents to which they respond. NFIRS
is supposed to allow the USFA to maintain records of incidents in a
uniform manner and develop statistics from that data.
While NFIRS is useful in its current capacity, it needs to be
updated so that reporting can be done online as well as in written
form. Currently, data that is reported using NFIRS software can take
more than a year to reach the USFA if it reaches at all. Some fire
departments purchase their own software to keep track of and report
incident data to USFA rather than using NFIRS. USFA should develop a
web-based reporting system that would allow information to flow more
quickly--to states and the USFA. The NVFC is pleased that the
authorizing bill addresses this issue.
The NVFC would also like to see the authorizing bill establish some
type of link between NFIRS and the National Emergency Medical Services
Information System (NEMSIS). NEMSIS, which is maintained by the
National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), collects
data about incidents that occur during EMS responses. Because the fire
service handles so many EMS calls, the NVFC believes that the USFA and
NHTSA should cooperate to make sure that their respective systems are
capturing data that is as accurate and useful as possible.
A major area of concern for the NVFC is that the number of
volunteer firefighters in the U.S. is decreasing. According to a
National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) study, between 1983 and
1988, the number of volunteer firefighters in the country has gone from
close to 900,000 to approximately 800,000. Since 1988, the number of
volunteers has fluctuated up and down but remained close to 800,000.
Over that same period of time, the number of volunteer firefighters per
person in this country has declined by 26.7 percent.
In addition to the declining numbers, the average age of volunteer
firefighters is increasing. In 1987, 63.2 percent of the firefighters
serving in communities of less than 2,500--almost all volunteers--were
under the age of 39. In 2005, the percentage was down to 51.7 percent
under the age of 39. The ages of firefighters serving communities with
populations of 24,999 or less, which are also mostly volunteers, have
shifted in a similar fashion.
To improve staffing at volunteer public safety agencies, the USFA
recently partnered with the NVFC to develop ``Recruitment and Retention
for the Volunteer Emergency Services,'' a 237-page guide that
identifies more than 30 specific challenges to recruiting and retaining
volunteers and offers multiple suggestions on how to overcome each of
them. The USFA has sponsored recruitment and retention workshops around
the country based on the information contained in the guide. The NVFC
and the USFA recently agreed to work together to create a video
companion to the guide that will be made available to the public.
Mr. Chairman, in my invitation to testify here today you
specifically requested information about the challenges facing rural
volunteer fire departments in reaching out to their communities to
teach fire prevention and fire safety education. Teaching fire
prevention and fire safety education is one of many non-emergency
functions that volunteer fire departments perform. Each of these
functions requires additional volunteer hours, which places stress on
the membership of a volunteer fire department. One strategy for
combating this is using retired volunteer firefighters who no longer
respond to emergencies, or community members who are not trained as
firefighters, to perform these tasks.
A great example of this is the Johnson County Rural Fire District
#1 in Clarksville, Arkansas, partnering with students from the local
University of the Ozarks' Phi Beta Lambda organization. The partnership
was established in 2005 and today over 100 students assist this small
rural department with their fire safety education programs. With the
help of the department's firefighters and non-operational volunteers,
the Johnson County RFD #1 increased the hours of its fire safety
education programs from approximately 100 hours per year before 2005 to
8,600 hours in 2006. Since the inception of its Fire Corps program, the
group's efforts have reached nearly one million people on the local,
State, and national levels with their important fire safety messages.
Through these efforts, this small department has affected a dramatic 34
percent decrease in fire-related property loss. . .all at little to no
cost to the department.
The Johnson County RFD #1 program was actually established through
a program called Fire Corps, which is part of the Department of
Homeland Security's Citizen Corps program and is administered jointly
by the NVFC and the International Association of Fire Chiefs. Fire
Corps provides career, combination and volunteer fire departments with
resources to help attract community members to serve the fire
department in nonoperational roles. The USFA participates in meetings
of the Fire Corps National Advisory Committee, made up of 15 non-
governmental organizations representing different constituencies within
the fire service. The USFA also helps promote Fire Corps at fire
service trade shows and at NFA.
In closing, the NVFC respectfully requests that USFA be
reauthorized and that funding be placed at a level that will allow the
USFA to continue, improve, and increase the programs offered to the
fire service and other emergency services. We support the funding
levels specified in the draft authorizing language and hopes that they
will not only be passed into law but fully funded in future
appropriations legislation.
Once again, thank you again for the opportunity to speak to you
today. If there are questions from the Committee, I will be glad to
respond to them at this time.
Biography for Gordon Henderson
Deputy Chief of Operations, Rome Fire Department, Rome, Georgia
Married--Dawn, two children, two grandchildren
Memberships:
International Association of Fire Chiefs
Southeastern Association of Fire Chiefs
Georgia Association of Fire Chiefs
District Vice President of the Georgia Association of Fire Chief
Georgia State Firefighters Association
Past President of the Georgia State Firefighters Association
Chair of the Georgia State Firefighters Association/Georgia Fire Chiefs
Association Joint Legislative Committee
Member and secretary of the NFPA 1001 National Professional
Qualifications for Firefighters Committee
BS in Business Administration with HRM concentration
Candidate for MBA with concentration in Public Administration
Chairman Wu. Thank you very much, Chief. Dr. Hall, please
proceed.
STATEMENT OF DR. JOHN R. HALL, JR., ASSISTANT VICE PRESIDENT,
FIRE ANALYSIS AND RESEARCH, NATIONAL FIRE PROTECTION
ASSOCIATION
Dr. Hall. Chairman Wu, Dr. Gingrey, and other Subcommittee
Members, the National Fire Protection Association and I greatly
appreciate the opportunity to speak to you in support of
reauthorization of the U.S. Fire Administration.
The USFA has funded and conducted over the years defining
research projects on a full range of fire prevention and
mitigation technologies. They have also partnered on research
to improve the technologies that first responders use to do
their jobs safely and effectively. For example, the USFA has
worked closely with NIST on computer analysis of fires where
firefighters die leading to new training tools and changes in
firefighting tactics and procedures.
NFPA is America's principal source for national voluntary
consensus codes and standards related to both fire safety and
the fire service. Our standards use a true consensus approach
with a balance of interests to address a broad range of topics
such as professional qualifications and performance testing,
maintenance, and operation standards for protective and
firefighting equipment. Over 400 Federal Government staff
including USFA and NIST, participate in the NFPA standards
development process, and our documents have benefited greatly
from USFA and NIST expertise. NFPA agrees with the legislation
that development and enhancement of national voluntary
consensus standards is important to the USFA mission. We
welcome this recognition of the importance of standards in
translating the latest scientific research into practice.
NFPA conducts some research itself, and we established the
Fire Protection Research Foundation as an independent entity to
partner funders with researchers on projects relevant to our
mission. NIST has provided researchers and the USFA has
provided funding for Research Foundation projects. Research has
brought us closer to understanding some of the technical
controversies surrounding home smoke alarms, fire sprinklers,
sensors for detection of incipient fire conditions, innovative
high performance materials, and the list goes on and on. But
despite these controversies, decisions must still be made. At
any given time, best judgments must be used when definitive
technical answers might be no more than one well-designed
project away. Best practices must be based on existing
technology because promising new technologies lack independent
testing and evaluation.
In 2006, the USFA and NFPA partnered on a Second Fire
Service Needs Assessment, and it found improvement on some
measures of aggregate and national need. For example, the
percentage of departments with portable radios to equip
everyone on a shift rose from 23 percent to 36 percent. The
percentage of departments with self-contained breathing
apparatus for all emergency responders rose from 30 percent to
40 percent. The percentage of departments with personal alert
safety system devices for all emergency responders on a shift
rose from 38 percent to 52 percent, and the percentage of
departments with written agreements to coordinate use of
outside personnel and equipment rose from 19 percent to 26
percent for a building collapse and from 21 percent to 30
percent for a biological chemical agent scenario.
Some were surprised that the improvements were not more
dramatic and did not extend to more types of resources. We were
not because we knew that a grant program funded at about $500
million a year could not expect to rapidly transform a set of
fire service needs collectively estimated to cost many tens of
billions of dollars. We suggest that Congress use our needs
assessment as a tool for priority setting.
In my real job back home, I am head of the group that
produces and analyzes fire statistics; so the one database that
is most important to make my work at NFPA more effective and
planning for the USFA more strategic is NFIRS. For three
decades, NFIRS has been essential in defining our national fire
problem. Despite its great value, NFIRS has been subject to
criticism--this year on timeliness. I believe web-based
reporting can be a valuable enhancement, but we need to
understand what it can and cannot do. NFIRS is a sample of
fires responded to by fire department. Valid analysis depends
on use of a representative sample of sufficient size. Currently
the full NFIRS sample is large enough that representativeness
is usually not a problem. However, if data were analyzed year
to date, there would be less data and less representative data
because of differences in speed of reporting by community,
size, and region. Also, NFIRS' quality depends on editing at
the local, State, and national levels. Requiring web-based,
real-time reporting could discourage or eliminate some or all
of this editing. I urge the Subcommittee to give the USFA
professionals the funding to expand the system but also the
flexibility to fill in the details.
I think I speak not only for NFPA but for all the fire
safety community in saying we need a strong USFA, a USFA that
does the things it does better than anyone else and makes it
easy for everyone else to do what they do best. We agree that
the reauthorization bill should reinforce the range of
technologies that are appropriate to the USFA mission but
resist the temptation to direct the application of resources
among these technologies.
We trust the new leader of the USFA, Chief Gregory Cade,
and the USFA professionals to make the best choices; and on
that basis, the NFPA strongly and enthusiastically supports the
reauthorization of the U.S. Fire Administration. Thank you,
sir.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Hall follows:]
Prepared Statement of John R. Hall, Jr.
Good morning. I am Dr. John Hall, Assistant Vice President for Fire
Analysis and Research at the National Fire Protection Association
(NFPA). Mr. Chairman, fellow Subcommittee Members, NFPA and I greatly
appreciate the opportunity to speak to you today in support of the
reauthorization of the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA).
Before I address the main questions in this hearing, I would like
to look at the record of the USFA over its more than three decades.
Year in and year out, the USFA demonstrates high professional skill,
strategic vision, the ability to set priorities, and a sustained
dedication to its unique dual role of the leader of Federal Government
fire safety and fire service programs and leader/supporter of America's
fire and emergency services, in all the great work they do. NFPA looks
forward to continuing our long and productive partnership with the USFA
and in particular to working closely with the newest U.S. Fire
Administrator, Chief Gregory Cade.
1. NFPA's Current Priorities for and Perspective on USFA and Fire
Technology Related Research and Development
NFPA is America's principal private non-profit fire safety advocacy
organization. As such, our interests in research and development are
driven by the needs of programs that will maintain or improve safety
from unwanted fire and other hazards and that will help America's first
responders to safely and effectively perform their roles of protecting
the rest of us.
Fire safety programs may operate principally through innovative
technology, supported by consensus codes and standards, or through
behavior change, achieved by education of ordinary people and training
of professionals.
In terms of technologies for greater fire safety, NFPA is a strong
advocate of the proven value and future potential of smoke alarms and
fire sprinklers, as well as design changes to powered equipment and
other heat sources, changes in the fire performance of materials and
products, and changes in the knowledge and behaviors of people.
In its first decade, the USFA provided strong leadership in
funding, defining and applying research to create a form of fire
sprinkler protection that made engineering and economic sense for
individual housing units. More recently, the USFA has continued to look
for additional innovations and approaches that will bring this life-
saving technology to more homes.
In the early years of America's interest in smoke alarms, the USFA
provided leadership in measuring the beliefs and values of American
heads of households, and in so doing, helped to accelerate the process
of placing smoke alarms in nearly every home. More recently, the USFA
and many other agencies and organizations have focused on taking smoke
alarms to the millions of mostly high-risk homes that still do not have
this protection.
The USFA has also funded research by NFPA to help identify
innovative solutions to
<bullet> smoker behaviors that influence cigarette fires,
still the #1 cause of fire deaths in the U.S.;
<bullet> cooking equipment and cooking behaviors, still the #1
cause of home fires and related injuries in the U.S.;
<bullet> and the variety of circumstances that make the fire
problem of rural America distinctive, where rural communities
still have the highest fire death rates relative to population
in the U.S.
On the fire service research side, the USFA has worked closely with
the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) to support
advanced computer analysis of fires where firefighters are fatally
injured. These studies have led to sophisticated new simulation and
training tools, as well as an understanding of rare but unusually
dangerous fire phenomena and changes in firefighting tactics and
procedures.
The USFA has also partnered on research on most of the technologies
that firefighters and other first responders use to do their job safely
and effectively, such as:
<bullet> portable radios, where inter-operability continues to
handicap firefighting in the largest incidents;
<bullet> personal alert safety systems, where questions have
arisen recently about equipment performance in severe fire
conditions;
<bullet> self-contained breathing apparatus and personal
protective clothing, where protection from the many threats
associated with fire must be balanced with the needs of the
body to take in oxygen and get rid of heat.
These are only examples of technologies that deserve high priority
because they offer especially great promise of significant improvement
in fire prevention, fire mitigation, firefighting effectiveness, or
firefighter health and safety. In every instance, the USFA has shown
leadership in setting priorities, putting high-quality projects in
motion, and partnering with many agencies and organizations to
accomplish shared goals.
Your draft reauthorization bill addresses the subjects of applied
research and technology in what I believe is the most appropriate
manner for an agency with a proven track record of good judgment and
important results. You have reinforced the range of technologies,
including detection, prevention, suppression, and department
operations, that are appropriate to the USFA mission, but you have
resisted the temptation to substitute the judgment of Congress for the
judgment of the USFA professionals in allocating resources among these
technologies. You have underscored the importance of coordination and
partnership with other national entities and listed many of the federal
agencies best equipped to serve as partners.
But you have resisted the temptation to steer the USFA toward any
particular agency or to favor governmental partners over private
partners. You have shown an awareness of the major elements of the
problem and its solutions, while also showing your trust and confidence
in the USFA professionals to make the best choices.
2. Please describe NFPA's role in setting standards and codes for
firefighting technology. How does NFPA engage with USFA and NIST in the
standards setting process? Does the current statute make adequate
provisions for this process?
NFPA is America's principal source for national voluntary consensus
codes and standards related to fire safety and the fire service. Our
standards and codes address such topics as:
<bullet> professional qualifications for firefighters, fire
officers, fire inspectors, fire and life safety educators, and
many other specialized positions and assignments within the
fire service;
<bullet> performance, testing, maintenance, and operation
standards for firefighter protective clothing and equipment and
for firefighting apparatus and equipment; and
<bullet> requirements for programs, such as training,
disaster/emergency management, business continuity, and fire
service occupational safety and health maintenance.
The NFPA codes and standards development process uses a ``true
consensus'' approach, in which technical committees are composed of a
balance of interests, with no one interest having a majority of votes.
For fire service related standards, we have extensive representation
from organizations representing fire chiefs, fire marshals, fire
investigators, firefighters, fire and life safety educators, and city
and community managers. We value all our volunteers, including the over
400 staff from the USFA, NIST and other federal agencies who
participate in the NFPA process. Many of our standards have been
greatly improved due to the special expertise brought to the committees
by USFA and NIST staff.
Once NFPA standards are issued, they still need to be adopted and
enforced. Adoption decisions are made separately by individual states
and municipalities. Some federal agencies also adopt NFPA codes and
standards for applications under their jurisdiction.
The USFA cannot act directly to achieve adoption of standards by
other federal agencies, let alone by non-federal entities, but the USFA
can improve the climate in which decisions about adoption are made by
forcefully and visibly supporting the voluntary consensus codes and
standards process and by putting the considerable weight of its own
reputation and leadership in support of compliance with national fire
service standards. The same can be said of NIST in those areas where
its expertise is universally acknowledged.
NFPA agrees with the draft legislation that ``development and
enhancement of national voluntary consensus standards'' is an important
part of the USFA mission. NFPA welcomes this recognition of the
importance of such standards in translating the latest scientific
research into practice.
3. Please discuss NFPA's work in fire prevention and firefighting
technology research. How does NFPA engage with USFA and NIST in
research activities? What funding opportunities exist for extra-mural
fire research, and are they adequate? Are there areas of particular
importance that are currently neglected due to lack of resources?
NFPA plays a fairly limited direct role in fire prevention and
firefighting technology research. Most hands-on research done by NFPA
staff is conducted within my division, and we concentrate primarily on
statistical analysis and literature reviews, plus related research in
areas such as human behavior and fire risk assessment. In that
capacity, NFPA has conducted funded research projects for the USFA and
NIST from the beginning.
The Fire Protection Research Foundation is an independent entity at
NFPA that brings together funders and researchers on projects to answer
questions affecting NFPA codes, standards, and other programs and
activities aimed at increasing program effectiveness or cost-
effectiveness in areas of fire safety or firefighter health and safety.
NIST has provided lead researchers for Research Foundation projects and
the USFA has provided funding for Research Foundation projects,
including current projects on firefighter respiratory exposure and fire
code inspection and compliance programs.
Both the USFA and NIST do an excellent job of sorting through
potential projects and supporting the ones with greatest potential. But
research funding for fire safety science and engineering and for
firefighter effectiveness, safety and health has been shrinking for
many years, not only in the U.S. but around the world. This is true for
governmental research, university research, and private-sector
research.
There are many technical controversies surrounding home smoke
alarms, fire sprinklers, sensors for detection of incipient fire
conditions involving different types of equipment, non-traditional
detection and suppression systems, innovative high-performance
materials, implications of energy conservation programs, implications
for fire safety of differing international approaches to toxicity and
environmental protection, and the list goes on. In every instance, the
developers of codes and standards have to make decisions based in part
on best judgments when definitive technical answers might be no more
than one well-designed project away. In every instance, the leaders in
fire safety and firefighter health and safety have to establish
requirements based on the known capabilities of existing technology
because promising new technologies lack the kind of independent testing
and evaluation that would allow them to be widely adopted if they prove
out and avoided if they do not.
This nation is nowhere near the point where additional research
dollars stop paying for themselves. More funds will yield results and
will improve people's lives. The USFA professionals have shown their
ability to use the funds available to them effectively and wisely.
4. Please provide an overview of the findings in the 2006 FEMA/NFPA
study, ``Four Years Later--A Second Needs Assessment of the U.S. Fire
Service.'' How can Congress use the results of this study to strengthen
the pending reauthorization legislation?
I personally led the NFPA analysis team that conducted both fire
service needs assessments. NFPA President Jim Shannon described the
first needs assessment as a ``call to action.'' The needs for essential
resources were widespread, covering every role the fire service plays
and every type of resource, from personnel to training to equipment to
planning.
Because the first needs assessment took place around the 9/11
attacks on America, particular attention was given to the findings on
preparedness for dealing with unusually challenging events, including
two types of terrorist attacks we had included in the survey. We
conducted a cost analysis on our findings as input to the study of
terrorism preparedness by the Council on Foreign Relations, and we
found that meeting those needs alone would require tens of billions of
dollars.
A separate cost analysis of needs for career firefighters
identified additional tens of billions of dollars of unmet needs to
meet standards and guidelines related to firefighter staffing and
coverage. That analysis was provided as support for the so-called SAFER
bill.
Our second needs assessment included a matching analysis of
Assistance to Firefighter grants against the reported needs of the
departments that had received those grants. We found a very high match
rate, indicating that fire departments were requesting resources that
they really needed, in order to safely and effectively perform the
tasks their communities were asking them to perform.
We also found some improvement on some of the measures of aggregate
national need. For example:
<bullet> the percentage of departments that had enough
portable radios to equip everyone on a shift rose from 23
percent to 36 percent;
<bullet> the percentage of departments with enough self-
contained breathing apparatus to equip all emergency responders
rose from 30 percent to 40 percent;
<bullet> the percentage of departments with enough personal
alert safety system (PASS) devices to equip all emergency
responders on a shift rose from 38 percent to 52 percent; and
<bullet> the percentage of departments with written agreements
to coordinate the use of outside personnel and equipment in a
response rose from 19% to 26% for a reference building collapse
scenario, from 21 percent to 30 percent for a reference
biological/chemical agent scenario, and from 33 percent to 40
percent for a reference wildland/urban interface fire scenario.
Some were surprised that the improvements were not more dramatic
and did not extend to more types of resources. (For example, staffing
and training measures of need showed no dramatic improvements.) We were
not surprised because we knew that a program funded at about a half-
billion dollars a year could not expect to rapidly transform a set of
fire service needs estimated collectively to cost many tens of billions
of dollars.
We suggest that Congress use our needs assessments as tools for
priority-setting. Priorities can be set by type of program or resource,
where unfunded federal mandates and responsibilities that inherently
cross jurisdictional lines would receive first priority, and priorities
can be set by some measure of vulnerability, where larger communities
more central to the national economy or more exposed in terms of iconic
structures might receive first priority. But the key word here is
``priority.'' All of the needs identified are real needs, and our
safety will suffer--and the safety of our first responders will
suffer--for as long as we continue with these needs unmet. But we have
to start somewhere, and it makes good sense to look for additional ways
to apply funds first where they will have the greatest impact.
That having been said, it is impossible to read the needs
assessments without concluding that the grant program needs to be
increased in size, from a fraction of a billion dollars annually to
some multiple of a billion dollars annually. With their strong track
record of distributing grant funds for best effect in the early years
of the program and with additional guidance of another look at
priority-setting rules for even greater effect, the USFA professionals
can be counted on to deliver high value as well as greater safety and
effectiveness to America in any expanded program.
5. NFIRS.
The National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) is not the
subject of one of the questions issued by the Subcommittee, but it is
the subject of considerable detailed attention in the draft
legislation. Because NFIRS is the one database that is most important
to make my work at NFPA effective, I would be remiss if I did not offer
some observations on the proposed plans for NFIRS.
First, let me underscore how important NFIRS has been in defining
our national fire problem in the three decades since its inception.
Through its annual stratified random-sample survey of U.S. fire
departments, NFPA has been able to define the overall size and trends
of the fire problem, but we had not been able to say much about the
details until the advent of NFIRS. Since then, NFIRS has been central
to the design of every fire prevention program and debate in the U.S.,
helping to support or knock down claims of urgency for a particular
fire problem or of effectiveness or promise for a particular solution.
Despite its great value, NFIRS has been subject to criticism from
the beginning. Some of the criticism has been directed at the level of
detail. This has always been a balancing act between the reporting
burden on firefighters and the amount of detail sought by decision-
makers. Neither side has ever been fully satisfied with the place where
that balance has been struck, and both sides have often been vocal
about their dissatisfactions. All too often, they have greatly
overstated the sizes of problems and undercut the support for the NFIRS
system itself. By trying to make it better, as they defined better,
they risked making it go away.
This year, the focus is on NFIRS timeliness and on the promise of
web-based reporting. I believe web-based reporting, properly integrated
with the existing NFIRS system, can be a valuable enhancement, but it
is important to recognize what such reporting can and cannot do.
Web-based reporting makes it easier to report fires. That is both
its advantage and its disadvantage. NFIRS quality depends on editing at
the local, State and national levels. Many missing entries, conflicts
and errors are caught during these edits so that the final database is
more accurate. Direct web-based reporting in real time may discourage
or eliminate some or all of this editing or discourage the addition or
revision of details based on late-emerging information, such as delayed
deaths, full fire investigations, and insurance assessments.
Whatever the effect of changes in reporting, the analysis of NFIRS
cannot be done validly in real time. NFIRS is a sample of fires
reported to fire departments. It is not a census or anything close to a
census. The fact that NFIRS is a sample means that its validity depends
on its representativeness. NFIRS is a large enough sample that issues
of representation by region or size of community can usually be
ignored, although recent declines in participation of the largest
cities have severely affected our ability to track and project trends
in high-rise building fires.
Analysis of NFIRS data based on what has been reported to date in a
given year means a much smaller sample and reduced representativeness,
reflecting the fact that different sizes of communities and different
regions are likely to differ in their speed of reporting and in their
participation in the web-based reporting. To get valid estimates from
NFIRS, you need to wait until a sufficient and representative group of
participants have fully reported.
Since 1980, most of my work has been centered around NFIRS
analyses, and I have had the privilege of being involved in nearly
every major national policy debate on fire safety and fire service
effectiveness and safety in that period. In all that time, I have
rarely seen a debate that even benefited from, let alone required, very
current data. Management makes decisions when it needs to with the
benefit of the information available at that time. Some information may
not be completely current; some information may lack useful details. A
real-time NFIRS would inject more current data with serious questions
of quality and accuracy. That is not a prescription for improved
decision-making.
In those rare instances where we really could use current data, we
usually need more detailed data than NFIRS can provide. This means we
need a special data collection protocol, which we would need for the
detail anyway and so might as well use to achieve the greater
timeliness. But in so doing, we need to be constantly aware that most
policy discussions are far better served by large quantities of valid
data than by the latest anecdotal-quality data.
What this means for the current draft legislation is that I urge
the subcommittee to maintain the kind of broad and flexible guidance it
has used in the rest of the legislation when it talks about NFIRS. By
all means, add funds to support expanding the existing web-based
reporting if you wish to do so, but leave the USFA professionals with
the flexibility they need to fill in the details.
Closing Thoughts
The USFA needs and deserves your support. The USFA needs to know
that Congress believes in their mission and wants them to succeed. The
USFA needs to know what you expect but not detailed requirements on how
those expectations should be met. The USFA needs to hear that Congress
encourages their leadership and their partnerships, but they need to
know that Congress realizes that the USFA is already doing a great job
on this score. Most of all, the USFA needs to hear that you recognize
what it costs to do what you want the agency to do and that you will
seek to align the agency's budget with its mandates.
I think I speak not only for NFPA but for all the fire safety
community in saying that we need a strong USFA on our team. We need a
USFA that does the things it does better than anyone else and that
makes it easy for everyone else to do what they do best.
For all those reasons, the NFPA strongly and enthusiastically
supports the reauthorization of the U.S. Fire Administration.
Biography for John R. Hall, Jr.
Education
B.A. (Mathematics), Brown University, Providence, RI, Cum Laude, 1967
Ph.D. (Operations Research), University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia,
PA, 1972
Experience
1984- National Fire Protection Association, Quincy, MA
Assistant Vice President (formerly Director)
Fire Analysis and Research Division
The Division is responsible for measuring the fire problem
and communicating the results as a basis for fire safety decision-
making and priority-setting. In research, the Division supports the
Association initiative toward performance-based codes and standards,
and conducts research in such areas as evacuation modeling and fire
risk analysis.
1982-1984 Center for Fire Research, National Bureau of Standards,
Gaithersburg, MD
Operations Research Analyst
Led development of a modeling framework for fire risk
analysis. Worked on risk analyses of home sprinklers, fire-blocking of
seats on passenger airlines and nuclear facilities.
1979-1982 Federal Emergency Management Agency, U.S. Fire
Administration, Washington, DC
Operations Research Analyst
1973-1979 Urban Institute, Washington, DC
Senior Research Associate (previously Research Associate)
1972-1973 Resource Management Corporation, Bethesda, MD
Research Analyst
Discussion
Chairman Wu. Thank you, Dr. Hall, and now we will turn to
Member questions, and the Chairman recognizes himself for five
minutes.
Several of the representatives of the fire services in
their written or oral testimony referred to the fact that USFA
does not have sufficient resources to fully meet the needs of
the local fire service communities; and Chief Westermann, I
believe you referred to that specifically in your oral
testimony. In your opinions, what are the financial and other
costs to local governments, to the fire departments, private
citizens, and businesses as a result of this underinvestment in
the USFA. And if we may, could we start with Chief Westermann
and move to my right, your left, and then we will finish up
with Administrator Cade.
Mr. Westermann. I think it is just an expansion of a lot of
the current programs that are there, beginning with the Fire
Academy. We have 8,000 people that have been on campus, only
76,000 through off-site, distance learning, but we have 1.2
million firefighters in the country, so there are a lot of
firefighters who are still not receiving some of the benefits
of those programs.
Probably the other respect to an expansion of programs is
the education of our public to reduce not only the fire losses
and life losses, particularly in residential sprinklers, the
smoke detectors, things of that nature. So it is just an
expansion I think of a lot of the current programs.
Chairman Wu. Captain Livingston.
Mr. Livingston. Mr. Chair, Committee Members, while I can't
quantify a dollar number for you on the cost and where we are
with respect to the programs, certainly clearly in my testimony
and others', we need to make some improvements with respect to
firefighter fatalities and make sure that we do a good job of
not only educating about safe operations but iterating clearly
that we strongly feel that it is time to have some national
standards and look at those and not only provide for some
streamlining of the fire service but also if you are going to
collect data with respect to NFIRS, one of those components,
and I think Dr. Hall mentioned it, is that I was shocked and
surprised to hear some of the numbers, like with radios, I
think we went from 21 percent up to 36 percent. To me, that
tells me that there is 64 percent of the firefighters out there
that still don't have mobile radios available for them to use
in an emergency situation. So while I appreciate the efforts
and certainly this is an important topic, the USFA has done a
great job, we live in a new world now, the 21st century; and so
I think we need to make some strides in some of these area, and
I think the USFA can be the sounding board for the fire service
to promote this, not only in the Federal Government but at the
local level as well.
Chairman Wu. Thank you, Captain Livingston. Chief
Henderson.
Mr. Henderson. In the State of Georgia, we use handoff
courses from the National Fire Academy that go out to a lot of
local firefighters, and I think those handoff courses are very
valuable and I think they need to continue. I think they need
to be encouraged. We have also started in the State of Georgia
going through the vo-tech schools to put out part of the
training. That also needs to be encouraged, and when you look
at those for the training to go out to the people who make it
easier for the volunteers to come in to their local communities
to get training. And also again, I would echo what everybody
else has said about residential sprinklers now. Cobb County and
Marietta where Dr. Gingery is from, actually have a residential
sprinkler ordinance; and I think it has saved a lot of lives in
Cobb County and Marietta. And it is something I think that is
needed nationwide. A dollar amount? I would have no idea of
what it would be, but I would say it would be expensive to the
states.
Chairman Wu. Thank you very much, Chief. Administrator Cade
and then if either Dr. Sunder or Dr. Hall have anything to add
to this.
Mr. Cade. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Certainly within the
United States Fire Administration, what we believe right now is
that we are currently funded for the mission that we are
expected to accomplish; and obviously if Congress decides to
increase the mission for the United States Fire Administration,
then hopefully there will be some additional funding that would
go along with that increase in the mission. I think what you
have heard certainly from some of the individuals is the hunger
for education and training at the local level, and that is
something that I look at as not only the head of the United
States Fire Administration but also as a fire chief--trying to
figure out how do you provide the best possible training at the
local level which is truly where it needs to be. The United
States Fire Administration has been trying and working very
diligently with our State training directors at figuring out
how we push out the training to the local level. It would be
nice to say that all of the firefighters are going to have an
opportunity to come through the National Fire Academy. That is
just not realistic. So we need to figure out better ways of
continuing to use distance learning capabilities to push out
those classes. We are making some modification in the training
classes that we provide. We are pilot testing some of them
right now to go from a two-week training program down to a six-
day training program so there would be some up-front work done
before the individual came there. Time is something that none
of us can increase unfortunately, so we are trying to make sure
that the offerings that we provide through the United States
Fire Administration acknowledge that that time is critical for
individuals, whether they are studying at home or studying at
the Fire Academy; and we certainly are trying to make some
things and make it more cost-effective to be able to use. We
have just moved back obviously in once again to FEMA, and part
of that is to look at how, as we fit in there, all of the other
programs that are being done across FEMA to look for the
operational efficiencies and streamlining in that process. So
hopefully as we do that, we can redirect some of the resources
that we have back into other programs.
Chairman Wu. Thank you, Mr. Cade. My time has expired, but
if Dr. Sunder or Dr. Hall have anything. Dr. Hall.
Dr. Hall. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In the beginning of my
remarks, I mentioned that the Fire Administration over the
years has funded a number of research projects on fire
prevention and mitigation as well as on the safety and
effectiveness of the fire service. So the question you posed I
think is a question of how much loss are we sustaining because
we didn't do more of what they have always done well? This
means we have had fires we didn't need to have, we have had
fires that were more serious than they needed to be, we have
paid more for fire protection than we had to pay, we have had
firefighters who showed up who were not able to stop fires as
quickly as they would have been able to, and we have had
firefighters who paid a serious price of death or injury
because of a lack of equipment or training.
Quantifying how much of that we could have done how quickly
is better done on a case-by-case basis, but I will tell you
that we estimate the total cost of fire losses, plus what we
spend to try to not have more losses, at over $100 billion a
year. And if you imagine, as I would imagine, that with and
accelerated translation of research into practice that we could
make a serious inroad into that number, then you are talking
about potentially tens of billions of dollars a year that you
might be able to reduce for prices a small fraction of that in
the form of well-designed research projects.
Chairman Wu. Thank you very much. Dr. Sunder? Thank you
very much, Dr. Hall.
Dr. Sunder. If I may just add just a couple of comments, I
think the issues of firefighter fatalities and residential
sprinklers are certainly worth noting. There is work currently
under way on those issues, particularly with regard to PASS
devices and positive pressure ventilation techniques and
structural collapse prediction technologies and firefighter
locator and training technologies. So all of those are being
addressed. There is obviously more that could be done, and it
is a valid point, I think, that we need to look at.
With regard to residential sprinklers, we have just
finished a cost-benefit analysis of residential sprinklers, and
this came out last month and this is going to be widely
disseminated. So the building code community will have better
information as they consider proposals to require residential
sprinklers
Chairman Wu. Thank you, Dr. Sunder. And with that, Dr.
Gingrey is recognized for five minutes.
Mr. Gingrey. Mr. Chairman, thank you. First of all, let me
thank all of our witnesses today, and this is very, very
impressive. I think we really got the experts here, both in the
policy and at the ground level; and it is great to hear from
all of you. Your written testimonies, of course, your complete
testimonies are part of our permanent record; and I haven't
read the full testimony of each and every one of you, but I
intend to try to do that. Sometimes we will have hearings when
I don't really have much interest in reading the full text
because of what the witnesses had to say; but what the
witnesses have had to say today, Mr. Chairman, I fully intend
to read it because this is very important.
I want to ask one question. I think most of you know I am a
medical doctor and Member of the United States House of
Representatives and so the question I want to ask is in regard
to emergency medical response. You know, all of us go to or by
the scene of an accident or to by the scene of a fire.
Sometimes you see what I would say is a duplicative response,
so obviously you need emergency medical personnel there. But
you know, what can we do to better coordinate so that people
are not standing around? And I want any one of the six of you
to respond to this or all of you. You have got so many
responsibilities as you pointed that out in regard to hazmat
and weapons of mass destruction and protecting structure,
evacuating personnel, making sure the fire doesn't spread to
adjoining buildings, et cetera. If your people are tied up
trying to do CPR and administer emergency medical services and
yet there are three ambulances at the scene as well with people
that are very well-trained, Chief Westermann and Captain
Livingston, maybe the two of you can start because you
addressed that more in your oral testimony.
Mr. Westermann. To start with, we firmly believe, and I
believe my colleague, Captain Livingston, will agree with this,
we firmly believe in fire-based EMS, and that simply is because
our stations are already spread out with the fire apparatus,
and to put an ambulance with an engine or the ladder truck is
simply logical sense for the distribution and to reduce the
response times to the incidents as low as possible.
As far as the number of people responding to the calls, and
it kind of depends on the call, but if an MVA, or motor vehicle
accident, is occurring, you should have an engine and an
ambulance, at least one ambulance, on the scene depending how
many patients there are, not only for patient care and
extrication of that patient from the car but you also have a
hazmat incident, you also have a fire hazard where some of the
other people will be checking into. And as the number of
patients increases, there goes the number of ambulances needed
on the scene. If we are talking about a heart attack or
something of that nature, you still end up with an engine and
an ambulance on many scenes.
Med units or ambulances are busy. Our ambulances in my
organization are on the road almost 24 hours a day. The engine
also has paramedics, EMTs on them across the country; and they
are being used again in order to reduce the response time. Get
the engine responding. The patient still gets the premium care
as possible, and at that point, once the engine or the ladder
truck gets on the scene, paramedic is providing care, the
ambulance, and I don't want to belittle their role, but
essentially becomes the taxicab. The patient is already getting
care. The ambulance comes in from the other call or----
Mr. Gingrey. That is my concern. I am running out of time,
and maybe I can address it in a second round because there are
not as many people to ask questions. But that is my concern. I
don't think the ambulance should be a taxicab, a very expensive
taxicab. So again, Captain Livingston, if you want to comment
in the few seconds I have left.
Mr. Livingston. Very briefly, Chairman Wu, Ranking Member
Gingrey, just simply, we are in the life safety business, and
it is a great fit for us to be able to provide emergency
medical care in the pre-hospital setting. As a paramedic
myself, I can tell you, and I will echo some of the same
comments that Chief Westermann said, our first and foremost
priority and what we are there for is to protect the public
safety, and life safety is important. Your illustration of a
motor vehicle accident, not only can we start to do initial
stabilization of the patient if we need to, particularly in my
organization and many throughout the fire service, we have
advanced life support capability; and as you know, airway
management and all those things are very important. At the same
time, that engine not only provides advanced life support, it
also provides for a safer scene with respect to if there is a
car fire involved, hazardous materials. So it is a great fit
from the standpoint of having the fire service be involved in
EMS and partnering with the then ambulance transport. Certainly
we believe fire-based transport is the way to streamline
things.
Mr. Gingrey. Thank you, Chief, and Captain. Mr. Chairman, I
know my time has expired. I am going to come back to this in a
second round.
Chairman Wu. We will come back to you fairly shortly. Mr.
Mitchell, you are recognized for five minutes.
Mr. Mitchell. Thank you. I don't really have a question but
kind of a response to Dr. Gingrey. In my area, in fact every
fire service in my district, the ambulance is contracted out.
It is not part of the fire service. So therefore there is not
an ambulance at every station. In fact, what happens is the
firefighters are the ones that are there fastest and the first
responders, and the ambulance pretty much does more than a
taxi--but they don't necessarily all have paramedics on them as
well. They have EMTs, but the fire service is the one that has
all the paramedics. So they are the first responders, they are
there first, and then the ambulance comes; and that way, it has
been cheaper because there is not an ambulance at every
station. They are spread out much thinner and don't respond as
fast. And that is just a comment. That is how it is in my
particular district. I yield back my time.
Chairman Wu. Thank you, Mr. Mitchell. Dr. Gingrey, since
you are the Republican on that side and you seem to have some
questions on this, we will come back to you; and then we will
go to Ms. Richardson.
Mr. Gingrey. Mr. Chairman, thank you, and I think some of
the other witnesses may want to comment on this. Mr. Mitchell,
thank you for your comments. It is a lot like that I think in
my district as well, and I haven't thought about this in a
while, so this is certainly a very timely week coming up and
reauthorization and a timely hearing. Here again, I want to
make sure that on the scene that there is a protocol. As
Representative Mitchell pointed out, the firemen respond first,
they get there first; but of course, in every community, the
ambulance whose services are contracted with the community,
whether county, city, or region, have to respond in a certain
period of time, and pretty darn quickly I might add. And let us
say the fire department is there and they are fighting that
fire but somebody with the great training that Captain
Livingston talked about is trying to save a life but all of a
sudden then he looks around and there is a paramedic in an
ambulance service, is there handoff protocol? The paramedic on
the ambulance certainly is not going to be able to go in there
and fight that fire, he is not trained to do that. Is there a
protocol so that we don't waste our talent, so to speak, at the
scene?
Mr. Westermann. I guess that is one of the niceties, the
benefits, of having fire-based EMS in that both your ambulance
personnel and the people fighting the fire are typically cross-
trained in the fire department, so they could trade off and
have the distinct protocols on handoffs such as what you
mentioned.
Mr. Livingston. And I would just say, Chairman Wu, Ranking
Member Gingrey, yes, there are protocols, particularly in the
example that you give. That is one of the things, and I think
it was Administrator Cade that mentioned it. Since we are so
good at the incident management system, it is the overall
incident commander that sets the goals and the priorities. And
so in your illustration, once again, life safety is always the
number one priority for the fire service, but they would also
go through the incident command system so that not only are we
using those resources efficiently but we are maximizing the
effectiveness of them. And so we do do that. While there may be
differences, it is the incident command system which we utilize
on a day-to-day basis that provides for that efficiency on that
emergency scene.
Mr. Gingrey. I just want to make this comment, and then if
others want to weigh in, you are there, you have that training,
you are trying to offer life support to someone that you pull
from the fire, but you may have six or eight or ten like in the
South Carolina situation, or other situations, where your
brothers at arms and your firefighting partners are in there
fighting a building, and of course, their lives are at stake,
too. So it is a matter of trying to make sure as I point out.
Would others like to comment on that?
Dr. Hall. First, a couple of facts. There is something like
20 million emergency responses by fire departments each year,
and only seven percent of them are fires. Something like 60
percent or more are medical responses, and the percent, as well
as the numbers, keep going up every year. The Fire Service
Needs Assessment that I mentioned has a fairly recent reading
on what fraction of fire departments offer EMS service, and the
other witnesses are correct that it is now the norm rather than
the exception; and also information on what fraction of them
have formal training for the people who are involved and what
levels of certification they have, and it varies all over the
place. But as Captain Livingston has stated, it all comes down
in the end to incident management. You have got to have a
department which is the central manager of the event, knowing
the resources from other departments and its own that it has to
put into place, has protocols in place to sequence the tasks
and have things done in parallel and sequence as appropriate.
So I think most departments do that, and the trick is whether a
group like the U.S. Fire Administration through their training
can make sure that all departments do that.
Mr. Gingrey. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think my time is
expired, and Ms. Richardson has been very patient.
Chairman Wu. Thank you, Dr. Gingrey, and with that, the
gentlelady from California, Ms. Richardson.
Ms. Richardson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman Wu, for having this
very helpful hearing that we have before us today. I am going
to start off first with a comment, and then I do have two
questions. Number one, I was a little surprised in all the
testimony today that there was very little reference to fire
facilities, and I will tell you that in my hometown, almost
every fire facility that I have been at, the fire stations
themselves have been highly inadequate. First in regard to
gender: you have situations where firefighters are forced to
put a little bell on the door or some little sign that says
that there is a woman firefighter who is using the restroom or
taking a shower; and clearly, we are going to have to deal with
the inadequate facilities that we have.
Second of all, I would like to speak to the poor
infrastructure. When you talk about crumbling bridges and so
on, many of our fire facilities have only been able to survive
due to the innovative abilities of our firefighters to really
fix them and keep them up to speed. But I am extremely
concerned for example that in my area, the size of the bay
doors, many of the new technology, the newer and larger size
trucks, that the equipment is not able to get in, not able to
get out. The location of the fire facilities in my area, we
have fire facilities that were originally put in there in the
'40s and '50s. Now we are talking about very highly urban
communities. So physically to get out, to get onto these
smaller streets and to get onto the main highways to be able to
get to people and care for them is in high jeopardy. So I would
like to see, before we come forward with this reauthorization,
more information of what we are doing with the facilities.
Specifically, what is your plan, what funding is going to be
needed, and what funding are we talking about in this budget
that is going to address those issues? My second point, Dr.
Sunder, I was watching the news this morning as I was getting
ready for a 7:30 meeting, and they were talking about a fire
that occurred here in D.C. and something to the effect that the
pipes didn't have enough water flow. So I would also like to
see come back to this committee additional information of what
we plan on doing to have adequate inspections of fire hydrants,
pipes, et cetera, so we are not waiting until there is a fire
and we find out we don't have adequate flow. That should be
something we know ahead of time, and we should have a priority
set of how we are going to improve these various key pieces of
infrastructure so when we have a fire, we are going to be able
to respond. And then my final point is a question to Captain
Livingston, and I am going to run to a Transportation Committee
meeting, so that is why if the other two pieces of information
could be supplied to this committee in writing.
Captain Livingston, I think to the core, we can talk about
the toys and all these wonderful things that we want to do, but
I just found it extremely alarming to hear you say that we need
national standards in order to reduce line-of-duty deaths; and
I would like to know from you specifically what are the
obstacles precluding us from establishing these standards, to
your knowledge? That was a mouthful from your youngest Member
of Congress. Not youngest, newest, I should say.
Mr. Livingston. Chairman Wu, Congresswoman Richardson, I
think what we need to do, like I mentioned in my testimony, is
we do not need to reinvent the wheel. We do have standards, and
concensus-based standards at that, that we largely go with.
Unfortunately, not every state follows NFPA guidelines. You
have a mishmash of standards that are based at the local level.
While I believe law enforcement has minimum standards for law
enforcement officers, here in the United States it is really at
the local level and the State level with respect to national
standards. We strongly believe that consensus standards, not
reinventing the wheel, using NFPA, whether it is firefighter
one standards, company officer standards, staffing standards,
those kind of things will have a direct impact on the amount of
lives we save in the fire service. We think it is long overdue
now in the 21st century that the fire service needs the Federal
Government to take a lead role with respect to that. The
bottom-up role has not worked.
Ms. Richardson. So then I think that would be leading to
our Administrator. Why have we failed to establish these
standards?
Mr. Cade. Well, at the United States Fire Administration
level, we have been asked very recently to participate in the
next generation of upgrades that the Occupational Safety and
Health Administration is putting out. The OSHA standards,
1910156, are currently out for updating, and part of the
conversation that we are having right now with OSHA from the
USFA standpoint is the incorporation of the latest standards.
The OSHA standards, as they are today, were written 31 years
ago, I believe. So they haven't been updated since then.
Obviously there has been a lot of consensus standards developed
around firefighter safety, minimum standards and certification
that have been done. So OSHA has opened it back up. Actually,
September 11 was when it was published in the Federal Register.
We have not submitted our comments yet, but we are putting them
together and will submit them for consideration by OSHA.
Hopefully what they are going to do is bring in the rest of the
national standards. That will at least give states and
localities something to specifically look at when they are
trying to develop standards; but even with that, there is still
the opportunity at the State level for them to either modify
the OSHA standards or accept them in whole, and it varies state
by state and how that is done.
Ms. Richardson. So could you provide to this committee your
timeline or how you would anticipate we would be able to
address this situation?
Mr. Cade. Yes, I will.
Ms. Richardson. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Wu. I thank the gentlelady. And we go to a second
round of questions. The chair recognizes himself. Captain
Livingston, I wanted to give you an opportunity to expand on
your previous answer. It is my understanding that the number of
fatalities for firefighters this year has already reached the
annual average, and we have three more months to go. What are
some of the things we can do to reduce the fatality rate and
what kind of leadership role can USFA or any of the other
agencies who are present can they play to reduce this high
fatality rate?
Mr. Livingston. Chairman Wu, I think what we need, and what
we do have, is an advocate in the USFA. They can be the point
agency within the Federal Government to not only start us on
the road of national standards but also to address some of the
needs that we have. I think Dr. Hall would reinforce this, I
think if you were to look over the last 30 years at the
firefighter fatalities, three common issues come to play. One,
it was a lack of communication on the fire ground that occurred
that led in some form or fashion to that death. Two, there was
a breakdown in the command and control of the incident. And
then three, simply staffing issues. We try to do too much with
too few personnel. And so I think those three areas that I have
discussed, as well as my written and oral testimony going down
the lines of some uniformity towards national standards, will
certainly help with that. Along with the standards, though, we
need to emphasize training. You ask a lot of the fire service,
our nation asks a lot of the fire service. We need to be able
to be properly trained, and it is a challenge right now. We
need to find ways to have our people continue to be well-
trained.
Chairman Wu. Thank you. Dr. Hall.
Dr. Hall. The majority of firefighter on-duty deaths each
year don't occur at the fire ground, and so if you were
thinking of steps that you particularly want to take, the
common theme in well over half of the firefighter deaths each
year is either a heart attack or some kind of vehicle handling
error. Now, you can address both of these through standards,
through training, through a variety of measures; but they
aren't the usual kind of we should have a new type of
equipment, we should have training in this kind of technical
task. So what we have run into, as Captain Livingston has said
several times, is a lack of people adopting and complying with
the standards that already exist. In this country we don't have
nationally binding standards for the most part. We have gotten
more involved in this through OSHA as Chief Cade just said, and
that gives us certain opportunities; but for many other things,
what we have to do is persuade and recruit the fire
departments, persuade them of the importance, recruit them to
following the standards, and that is a much more painstaking
task.
Chairman Wu. Thank you very much. And Mr. Cade, what
capabilities would your agency like to add to NFIRS and also in
your testimony you noted that the current system only captures
about half of the incidents that occur annually. What makes the
reporting system limited in this fashion and could you also
address the complaints about timeliness that have been brought
up today?
Mr. Cade. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think fundamentally,
one of the issues with the National Incident Reporting System
has just been the time that it takes and the process going from
a paper process at some point. Someone has to enter that data
into a computer system and doing that whole editing iteration.
The data belongs to the local fire service and it also belongs
to the state, so it takes a little while for it to come through
to us at the USFA and the data center. As Congressman Gingrey
directly points out, part of the dilemma with making any of the
changes that we are looking at is trying to ensure that we
don't get caught up in the technology end of things and that we
forget the goal of what we are trying to accomplish. And the
goal for us is to be able to have the information available to
the fire service to be able to make the decisions that they
need to make at the local level. Right now we do, I think, a
very good job of providing the long-term capability of doing
the data analysis for the studies. We do some very important
work with a lot of our partners. It is not just the national
fire data that we are using, we are using information from the
Consumer Product Safety Commission, the NFPA, there are a bunch
of different arenas that are providing that information to us.
We are trying to look at making it a web-based system not so
much so that we can get that information to us alone faster,
but also to be able to allow people to get in and search the
data base and use it in an easier manner than what it is today.
It is not user-friendly, and one of my goals is to try to make
it user-friendly for a fire chief.
Chairman Wu. My time has expired, but Dr. Hall, I would
expect that you would have some comment on this also?
Dr. Hall. From the very beginning of NFIRS, we have never
been in a position where all the states were participating in
NFIRS, and the USFA really has no legal authority or strong
measures that it can use to compel states to participate. Few
states have all of their communities participating when the
State participates, and some communities in some states go in
and out of participation. So we are not in a position to be
able to jump to a 100 percent census system, and I think it is
helpful to compare us to other systems out there. There are
really only two countries in the world that have anything
remotely close to what we have in our ability to track
accurately and with some detail the fire experience, and those
are the United Kingdom and Japan. Canada used to, but their
system, which was about like ours, fell apart because of the
lack of close coordination at the national level.
Over at the FBI where they track crimes and participation
is mandatory, they still don't get everything in and they don't
necessarily have a well-defined procedure for projecting from
what they do get to what they record. But the best example is
probably the death certificate database where it is completely
mandatory, everything comes in, and yet if you go in and find
out what is the latest data you have got available, you will
quite often find that it is older than the NFIRS data that is
out. So a certain degree of realism about what is achievable
and also an awareness of what the system is trying to do to get
a representative but detailed sample that is a valid sample and
to analyze it in valid ways and then go on from those multiple
objectives to what you can and what you can't accomplish with
certain kinds of technology upgrades; that I think is the way
to go. And I know and deeply respect the professionals at the
USFA who were in charge of NFIRS. I know that if you give them
a mandate to do the best job they can with the funds available,
you will get the best job that anyone can do.
Chairman Wu. Thank you very much, Dr. Hall. The gentleman
from Georgia.
Mr. Gingrey. Mr. Chairman, thank you. With all of my
Republican colleagues tied up at other hearings and markups, I
am getting this opportunity to be in a catbird seat. At the end
of this hearing, I am probably going to be the resident
Republican expert on fire issues now that Curt Weldon, my
friend from Pennsylvania, is no longer with us. So this is
indeed, Mr. Chairman, a unique opportunity for me.
I want to go to what Chief Henderson in regard to the issue
of the residential sprinklers. And Chief, you mentioned my own
county of Cobb's requirement. And of course, Dr. Sunder,
addressed just a little bit about a recent study of the cost
analysis of requiring residential sprinkler systems. It is sort
of like isn't it the thinking of the requirement of having
seatbelts in our public school buses in every seat, and we
don't have that by any stretch of the imagination. So I would
like Chief Henderson for you to start, maybe Dr. Sunder to
weigh in, and the others if there is time remaining to discuss
this issue a little bit further, in regard to cost-
effectiveness.
Mr. Henderson. With regards to cost per household of
installing a residential sprinkler system, and it would vary
depending on the state and depending on the labor cost and
things. But I think in Cobb County the cost is somewhere
around, in a new structure around $1 a square foot. And then to
go back and retrofit it is somewhere up to $5 a square foot,
just to put those sprinkler systems in.
Mr. Gingrey. That would equate, Chief, to a $10,000 expense
on a 2,000 square foot home for retrofitting?
Mr. Henderson. For retrofitting.
Mr. Gingrey. A pretty expensive item for----
Mr. Henderson. Yes, sir. That is one problem that you
always have when you start talking about residential sprinklers
is simply because the mortgage lenders, contractors, insurance
companies, and people of another nature are the people that
actually fight those kind of laws. But when you look on the
other hand, the lives that are saved, I think nationwide and
Dr. Sunder might be able to give me a little help with the
statistics, but I think nationwide there is something like 80
percent fewer deaths in sprinkler areas. Scottsdale, Arizona, I
think, has one of the longest communities that has had
sprinkler systems. They have been in place for 20, 25 years,
something like that. It would save the lives of the people in
the community, it would save lives of the firefighters, and
there is another problem with that, the rule of eminent domain.
Just like smoke detectors now, in the State of Georgia, we have
a law that requires everybody to have a smoke detector. You can
actually fine them $25 if they don't have a smoke detector. The
only problem is no one can go in the house unless they have an
emergency or unless they are invited in to check to see if they
have got them. It would be the same thing with residential
sprinklers.
Mr. Gingrey. And a $25 fine is not taking much----
Mr. Henderson. No, not much. But, you know, that is a
problem when you pass those kinds of laws without looking at
the rule of eminent domain because that is that person's house
and you have to be invited in or brought in in an emergency
situation.
Mr. Gingrey. That is a great point. Dr. Sunder.
Dr. Sunder. I would just like to make two separate points,
one regarding the benefit cost analysis with what we have done.
We have looked at three kinds of homes, colonial, townhouse,
and ranch homes, and we have looked at the installation of a
minimum kind of sprinkler system, bare bones with existing
plumbing in new construction. It is anywhere from about $1,000
to $2,000 roughly speaking. The colonial is a little bit more
expensive than let us say a ranch. The benefits when you think
about the fatalities averted, the injuries averted, the
uninsured property loss averted, indirect costs averted and so
forth, insurance credit, the benefits are about $5,000 a piece
for all of those kinds of houses. So the benefit-to-cost in
that situation is somewhere between $2,000 and $5,000,
somewhere in that order.
The other point of course is when you start putting more
fancy systems in place, the costs go up; and of course,
retrofit is a whole different proposition. That is always the
biggest issue in anything we do with building codes. Now,
having said that, the question is how do we get these changes
into building codes? We have in our country a system where it
is a voluntary consensus system, and we have a system where
different interested parties weigh in on the building code
process, particularly at the national level you have the
International Code Council and NPFA that are model codes. For
this discussion, I will use ICC, the International Code Council
as an example. It is used in a number of the states nationwide,
and the democratic process you have there gets the private
sector involved, the insurance involved, the home builders
involved, and then the fire service. It is always an issue of
convincing, having enough votes to get your proposal passed;
and in the last cycle, in fact I was there that time, they
didn't make it. There was a proposal to include residential
fire sprinklers in, and they didn't make it. My guess is with
these new studies and more conviction on the cost issue, it
might come to pass in the future.
Mr. Gingrey. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Wu. Thank you, Dr. Gingrey, and there being no
further questions from the panel present, before I bring the
hearing to a close, I would like to thank our witnesses for
coming, in many instances, long distances to testify in your
very thoughtful testimony before the Subcommittee today. The
record will remain open for additional statements from the
Members and for questions and answers and any follow-up
questions the Committee may ask of the witnesses. The witnesses
are now excused, and the hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 11:45 a.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]
Appendix 1:
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Answers to Post-Hearing Questions
Responses by Gregory B. Cade, Assistant Administrator, Federal
Emergency Management Agency; U.S. Fire Administrator, United
States Fire Administration, Department of Homeland Security
Questions submitted by Chairman David Wu
Q1. In your testimony you report that nearly all U.S. Fire
Administration (USFA) research activity happens through partnerships.
How much funding comes directly from USFA for research? How many of
those partnerships are formalized, and through what means (i.e., with
memorandums of understanding)? You also mention in your testimony that
nearly $17 million since FY 2005 has gone from the Assistance to
Firefighters grants program to research and development grants. Who
serves on the peer-review board of these applications?
A1. The United States Fire Administration (USFA) does not receive
specific funding dedicated solely to research activities. In recent
years, however, approximately $500,000 has been used on a variety of
projects and studies designed to advance applied research and
technology development.
The USFA establishes partnerships via Memorandums of Understanding
and Interagency Agreements with agencies such as the National Institute
of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the US Department of Justice's
(DOJ) National Institute of Justice (NIJ). Currently the partnership
with NIST focuses on firefighting, fire suppression, and fire life
safety technology. With DOJ/NIJ, emergency responder emergency vehicle
and roadway safety programs to benefit both firefighter and law
enforcement officer safety are the focus. Also, the USFA works with the
Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) on issues of citizen fire
safety.
Other research partnerships with national level fire service
organizations such as the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA),
International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC), International
Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF), National Volunteer Fire Council
(NVFC), and the International Fire Service Training Association (IFSTA)
are accomplished through Cooperative Agreements.
The Assistance to Firefighters Grants (AFG) program adheres to the
requirements that have been placed into the grants' governing statute.
The AFG program is administered through FEMA's Grants Program
Directorate, not through the USFA. While USFA does not administer the
program it does provide the space for peer reviews to be conducted at
the National Emergency Training Center in Emmitsburg, Maryland. With
respect to the peer reviews, the program seeks to obtain panelists who
are knowledgeable, experienced, and a part of the fire service. A list
of recommended panelists is obtained from National fire service
organizations as well as from institutions that carry out fire service
related research and development. In this manner the program is able to
establish peer review panels--from the 20 individuals selected--that
not only have expertise in research but also have an understanding of
the needs of the fire service.
Q2. For the research activities USFA carries out through partnerships
with the Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology
Directorate (DHS S&T), how does USFA communicate research priorities to
the S&T Directorate? Does the funding for these projects come from USFA
or from DHS S&T?
A2. Both the United States Fire Administration (USFA) and the S&T
Directorate provide funding to programs identified through their
participation in the S&T Directorate's customer led Capstone Integrated
Product Teams (IPTs). The IPTs are charged with identifying functional
capability requirements across the Department. The products of these
IPTs are used to identify components' highest priority science and
technology needs and to allocate resources to those programs that
support the components' and DHS' priorities.
Q3. In your testimony you mention that USFA is working closely with
Federal Emergency Management Association's (FEMA) National Preparedness
Directorate to coordinate training to make sure NFA courses are in-line
with the new National Preparedness Guidelines and address elements of
the Universal Task List and the Target Capabilities List.
Q3a. Do these lists adequately address the needs of the fire service?
A3a. The United States Fire Administration (USFA) developed a crosswalk
on how classes taught at the National Fire Academy (NFA) address each
of the various Target Capabilities, and we will assimilate other
identified capabilities into new curricula as appropriate. The cross-
walking of existing USFA programs and NFA courses to the National
Preparedness Guidelines (Guidelines) including the Universal Task List
(UTL) and the Target Capability List (TCL), demonstrates a commitment
to ensuring a culture of preparedness. The lists are broad enough to
allow for the needs of the fire service as it continues to evolve and
adapt to emergent issues. USFA continues to work close with FEMA's
National Preparedness Directorate, which currently manages the
implementation of UTL and TCL. Both the UTL and TCL adequately address
the core competencies of today's fire service and the tenets of these
documents are reflected in NFA courses.
Q3b. Will this collaboration detract from curriculum needs that are
unique to the fire service?
A3b. Adequate preparation for meeting the fire service's day-to-day
demands is also the foundation for meeting the demands of an emergency
related to terrorism. Training to meet chemical/biological/
radiological/nuclear threats is already part of many fire departments'
skill set; responders may not know whether their incident is terrorist-
related until well into the response operations. Additional training
requirements can strain fire department resources.
The collaboration and continued commitment to the Guidelines will
not detract from the unique curriculum needs of the fire service but
instead allow USFA to frame curriculum needs within the Guidelines and
ensure an all hazards approach to preparedness and response training,
education, data collection and analysis, research involving civilian
and fire service losses. Working with the Guidelines will continue to
benefit USFA in tailoring classes which will conform to the overarching
goals of the department and the needs of the fire service.
Q3c. What is the current balance at NFA between training related to
typical structure and wild fires versus fires and emergencies related
to terrorism or chemical/biological/radiological/nuclear threats?
A3c. Chemical/biological/radiological/nuclear threats have been part of
fire departments' response plans for decades; only the criminal or
political element sets a terrorist incident apart. Since 1997, the NFA
has added the terrorism element to its training by weaving it into
existing curricula where appropriate. Free-standing terrorism training
courses were conducted in cooperation with our State partners and have
reached in excess of 270,000 emergency responders including
firefighter, emergency medical, law enforcement, community leadership
and public works personnel.
The current balance of structural firefighting operations versus
wildfire versus terrorism and fires involving hazardous materials
events is NFA courses are predominately structural firefighting
related. However, NFA has several wildfire courses intended to educate
structural firefighters and interface communities with the unique
conditions and decision process of wildland firefighting.
The USFA has a Hazardous Materials Program that has integrated
terrorism (CBRNE) response into the hazardous materials curriculum at
all levels. By integrating the terrorism and hazardous materials
training allows USFA to maintain proper perspective while at the same
time acknowledging the unique issues associated with incident
initiation methodologies such as accidental, intentional, criminal, and
terrorism.
Courses at the NFA are reviewed regularly to assure they align with
the National Preparedness Guidelines and the needs of students.
Q4. In your testimony you state that ``USFA strongly advocates for
local fire departments to be the center of preparedness within their
jurisdictions.'' What types of guidance does USFA offer to help them
assume this role?
A4. Nationwide, citizens recognize their local fire departments will be
among the first responders to any significant incident. The public
looks to its fire service for guidance about preparedness for local
community risks. Programs in which the fire service already works as a
center for preparedness include: fire prevention, hazardous materials
awareness, child safety seat awareness and injury prevention programs.
The United States Fire Administration (USFA), through the National Fire
Academy (National Fire Academy), delivers courses in community health
risk management, risk management from an operational safety
perspective, creating community risk-management partnerships, risk
management through code enforcement and strategic community risk
reduction. To help reach the general public with preparedness messages,
NFA offers nine resident and four handoff courses to those who will be
conducting public outreach. These handoff courses are courses which
have been developed by NFA for delivery from State Fire Training
Offices across the country to students who the NFA cannot service due
to either space constraints at NFA, or time constraints of the
students. USFA also advocates for fire departments to train other local
emergency services organizations and hospitals on the use of the
National Incident Management System (NIMS). USFA is working with the
National Preparedness Directorate within FEMA to provide training and
course material on the NIMS to local fire departments to assist with
training.
The USFA also develops and distributes a wide range of publications
designed to assist departments in the implementation of public
education programs promoting the fire prevention and preparedness
message. In the future USFA will be working with the Citizen Corps
program, including the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT)
program. The CERT program deals heavily in citizen and community
preparedness as well as being an extension of response capabilities for
fire departments. Currently there are many fire departments who provide
the CERT training to their citizens and serve as repositories of
preparedness activities within their community.
Q5a. How does USFA evaluate its public education and awareness
programs?
A5a. The United States Fire Administration (USFA) uses a variety of
ways to evaluate its public education and awareness programs. They
include tracking the reach of campaign efforts through monitoring and
reporting on the use of press releases, spokesperson interviews, public
service ads, and USFA references in the news. We monitor and track the
materials distributed to fire departments and partners through a
contract and track both ``hits'' on the USFA website as well as orders
sent through the USFA publications center.
USFA is always open to suggestions regarding messaging and
materials whether it comes from a citizen or a professional fire
organization. Often changes or the development of new approaches come
from these valuable comments and suggestions.
USFA currently contracts with a Washington, DC-based firm to
develop a pilot qualitative evaluation tool to be used in the future to
gain more insight into the value of USFA public education and awareness
activities. This contract is in place for a one-year startup and
results should be available by the summer of 2008.
When the goal of a message is to motivate a behavior change in a
target group, how does USFA work to develop that message and evaluate
its impact?
Q5b. When the goal of a message is to motivate a behavior change in a
target group, how does USFA work to develop that message and evaluate
its impact?
A5b. Engaging Partners
At the start of the process, USFA engages partners and Fire Service
leaders in the content development, design and packaging of materials.
Their participation, especially in the early stages of campaign or
material development process, ensures that we:
<bullet> Gain insight from Fire Service leaders and other
partners to clarify the target audience and behaviors we are
seeking to promote through the educational materials.
<bullet> Include relevant questions in any primary research--
quantitative or qualitative--that might be undertaken.
<bullet> Inform partners, potential partners and allies of
plans for fire safety and prevention education materials and
gain their insight into the target audience.
<bullet> Include educational materials in plans for
distribution through channels that are credible to the target
audience.
<bullet> Identify images, colors and phrases that capture the
attention of the target audience(s).
Target Audience Testing
Testing campaign concepts and materials with the intended
audience(s) is necessary to ensure that the campaign will actually
reach at-risk audiences with messages that motivate a change in
behavior. This testing can include focus group research, structured
one-on-one interviews with individuals that represent the target
audience or have experience in reaching the audiences, and formal
technical and advisory panels.
Critical testing questions include:
<bullet> Are the campaign concept and message(s) believable?
<bullet> Are they relevant to the audience? What would make
them relevant?
<bullet> Are they credible? What would make them credible?
<bullet> Does the message motivate the audience to overcome
barriers to action?
<bullet> Are the proposed communication channels effective in
reaching the audience?
<bullet> Are the draft educational materials effective? Will
the target audience use them?
Through a contract with a DC-based firm, USFA conducts readability
tests to make certain that the literacy levels of the materials are
appropriate to the audience.
Q5c. What types of partnerships does USFA draw on to develop it public
education material?
A5c. USFA works through a variety of means to develop and draw on other
organizations in the development of its public education materials.
Types of partnerships include Memorandums of Understanding, Interagency
Agreements, Contracts, Grants and so forth. These partnerships range
from formal contracts to informal discussions with other safety
organizations such as the American Red Cross, the National Fire
Protection Association (NFPA), the Home Safety Council, American
Academy of Pediatrics, SAFE KIDS Worldwide, ZERO to THREE, the National
Volunteer Fire Council, Indian Health Service, Department of Housing
and Urban Development, International Fire Chiefs Association,
Residential Fire Sprinkler Institute, and local fire departments. USFA
utilizes research results obtained from work with the National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for some of the content in
the public education materials from these organizations.
Q5d. To what extent has USFA engaged with social scientists to
research, develop, and implement effective fire prevention and safety
messages?
A5d. The firm currently under contract with USFA specializes in
``social marketing'' in the areas of health and safety. With their able
assistance, USFA frequently consults with social scientists that
specialize in the areas of psychology, psychiatry, and sociology. These
experts are consulted for the purpose of advice on targeting messages
to particular at-risk audiences in order to develop materials that are
more effective when working with specific high risk groups such as
children, older adults and others. In addition, we request advice on
methodologies and outreach activities in order to best deliver the
educational information at the local level to the particular audiences
targeted.
In the past, USFA delivered several grants to colleges/universities
to conduct research with targeted population groups. The results of
these grants were incorporated into decision-making where appropriate.
For the past seven years, USFA has been working in conjunction with
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Through this
partnership, work has been conducted on the National Fire Risk Survey
and Behavioral Risk Factor Survey to gain insight into human behavior
during a home fire. To date, the results have not been reported, but
should be available within the coming year.
The National Fire Risk Survey is an on-going surveillance of fire-
related behavior and risk/protective factors. A telephone survey will
be designed and conducted to collect national-level population-based
data on:
<bullet> Knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors
<bullet> Population-based numbers of fires, the number put out
by sprinklers, the number put out by homeowners in response to
smoke alarms, and the number of fires responded to by fire
departments
<bullet> Placement, number, and functionality of smoke alarms
and frequency of testing
<bullet> Presence of sprinklers
<bullet> Fire-related injuries that are not seen in Emergency
Departments or hospitals
<bullet> Primary prevention risk and protective factors (e.g.,
inappropriate use of space heaters, use of childproof lighters)
<bullet> Fire-related injuries and deaths linked to
disabilities
Behavioral Risk Factor Survey (state-based risk/protective factor
surveillance) (CDC). Additional questions were added to CDC's
Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) 2003 survey to
collect State-level data on the following variables. Two questions were
added to the emerging core and five questions were included in an
optional module.
<bullet> Placement, number, and functionality of smoke alarms
in the home
<bullet> Type of smoke alarms (e.g., lithium battery-powered,
nine-volt battery, hard-wired)
<bullet> Frequency of testing of smoke alarms
<bullet> Escape planning and practice
In addition, USFA is a member of the National Fire Safety Public
Private Council which is a cooperative effort between several federal
agencies including the CDC, Consumer Product Safety Council, the
National Fire Protection Association and approximately 15 other federal
agencies and private national organizations that are concerned with
fire safety. This organization manages the web site, http://
www.firesafety.gov.
Q6. In addition to working with federal agencies like the Bureau of
Land Management (BLM) to create curricula to train local firefighters
to fight fires in the wildland-urban interface, is USFA engaged in
fostering the working relationship between local fire department and
the federal agencies that handle wildland fires?
A6. The United States Fire Administration (USFA) has a strong working
relationship with the wildland fire community to coordinate with
various federal, State, and local agencies on a wide variety of public
education, training, mitigation, and response initiatives as well as
policy issues that contribute to the reduction of wildland fires and
their impact on the American public. Programs are designed, developed,
and implemented to provide education and awareness to the general
public and local officials with a basic understanding of appropriate
wildland urban interface fire prevention and mitigation initiatives for
the home and the community at large. Firefighting objectives,
strategies, tactics and tasks in the wildland environment differ from
those in the structural fire protection community, so cross training
these entities is an important part of community preparedness.
USFA is represented on the Wildland Fire Leadership Council (WFLC)
which is a senior-level body that provides policy-level coordination
between the Department of Interior, Department of Agriculture Forest
Service, State Foresters, Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park
Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, National Weather Service and USFA.
These agencies work together to coordinate and support wildland fire
and disaster operations. USFA is a member of the newly constituted Fire
Executive Council, a senior executive level body comprised of members
from the Department of Interior Bureau's with wildland fire
responsibility. USFA has a full-time staff member assigned at the
National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC). USFA is a permanent member on
the National Multi-Agency Coordination Group (NMAC) which provides
geographic area priorities, coordination for national shared resources,
shortage area resource needs, incident operations coordination and
preparation for fire season operations. USFA serves as the link to
local government fire service issues and resolution at NIFC. USFA
serves on several National Wildfire Coordinating Groups (NWCG) Parent
Group and Working Teams including Training, Fire Investigation, and
Wildland/Urban Interface.
USFA has underway a Training Equivalency/Crosswalk initiative with
the consolidation of specific NWCG course units. The purpose is to
identify gaps in standard structural fire training programs to help
firefighters become competent in wildland fire operations. The goal of
the project is to improve training options available to firefighters by
recommending a standardized crosswalk of equivalency training or
potential reciprocity between existing training provided to structural
and wildland firefighters.
Through a partnership with USFA and the Forest Service, a Wildland/
Urban Interface 3D Simulation tool has been developed. It is being
delivered to support simulation training for the Wildland/Urban
interface problem as evidenced by the recent Southern California Fire
Siege. This training simulation provides a physically realistic fire
propagation model based on fuel types, various environmental
conditions, and topography. Participants have the ability to request
resources and simulate building fire lines to hinder and stop the
propagation of the fire. Instructors have the ability to alter the
environmental conditions that in turn affect the behavior of the fire.
The overall goal of the USFA All-Hazard Incident Management Team
(Type 3) (AHIMT) Technical Assistance program is to develop all-hazard
state, metropolitan and regional Incident Management Teams (IMTs) to
better prepare local communities with the capability to manage large
scale and complex emergency incidents, including local incidents with
national implications. The AHIMT can support either an existing
Incident Command System (ICS) structure or can assume command of an
incident if requested and so delegated. A component of the program
includes field training opportunities. The knowledge disseminated
through the training has been applied successfully at several events
including Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma; floods, wildland fires,
and law enforcement incidents.
In the wildland fire community, the Forest Service and the NWCG
recognize five ``Types,'' or levels, of IMTs. USFA has stayed with this
model for the all-hazards emergency response community. The IMT types
are:
Type 5--Local command and general staff formed at a major/
complex incident.
Type 4--Regional or local, single or multi-agency team for
expanded incidents
Type 3--State or Regional multi-agency/multi-jurisdiction team
for extended incidents
Type 2--National or State team for incidents of regional
significance
Type 1--National or State team for incidents of national
significance
Several USFA AHIMT Type 3 teams have had opportunities to work
directly with the National Type 1 and 2 teams on various incidents of
national significance. Based on real world experience gained through
application, the training has been revised to ensure that it will
continue to provide the necessary tools for individuals to perform as
members of a Type 3 IMT.
Q7. Captain Livingston, representing the International Association of
Fire Fighters, testified that USFA should be encouraging local fire
departments to adopt national safety standards. What is USFA doing to
facilitate and encourage State and local fire agencies to adopt
voluntary consensus standards like NFPA 1500? What other measures is
USFA taking to decrease the number of line of duty deaths in the fire
service?
A7. The United States Fire Administration (USFA) participates on the
DHS Science and Technology Standards Council and has worked with the
Council to adopt twenty-five NFPA standards including NFPA 1500. The
Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program (AFG), administered by FEMA's
Grants Program Directorate, uses the adopted standards to set targets
and goals for recipients of AFG grants. Grant applicants are asked to
articulate how an award will get them closer to meeting a standard
relevant to the type of grant they are requesting.
USFA has initiated a multitude of studies and project efforts to
reduce firefighter on-duty deaths including those in health and
wellness, dealing with the leading cause of on duty fatalities--heart
attack and stress; in emergency vehicle safety aimed to reduce the
second leading cause of such fatalities--crashes. Further, USFA has
projects dealing with firefighting technology to enhance firefighter
operational safety on the fireground, including Thermal Imaging
Cameras, Firefighter Simulation Training, and other areas. Finally,
USFA's firefighter health and safety studies encourage fire service
compliance with relevant NFPA health and safety standards, such as NFPA
1500.
In cooperation with the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation,
the International Association of Fire Chiefs, the International
Association of Fire Fighters, the National Volunteer Fire Council and
many others, the USFA has championed the national ``Everybody Goes
Home'' campaign for firefighter safety and health (which is built from
the NFPA 1500 standards). Every student who attends a NFA course
receives a copy of these 16 initiatives on a CD for use when they
return home. Across the National Fire Academy's curricula, where
appropriate, consensus standards are referenced and discussed. Since
1988 (with periodic updates) the NFA has been conducting courses
specifically focusing on reducing line of duty deaths.
Q8. What process does USFA use to develop new curriculum for the
National Fire Academy? After major events, like Hurricane Katrina, how
does USFA incorporate ``lessons learned'' into new courses?
A8. The United States Fire Administration (USFA) employs a formal
``Curriculum Management System'' that relies on constituent input into
curriculum planning and development. USFA maintains strong State and
local partnerships to assist these organizations in their training by
identifying programs that complement and supplement State and local
training, and not replicate their efforts. This partnership with State
and local organizations through the years has produced programs such as
State Delivery, Train-the-Trainer, In-Service Training, State Weekend
Programs, Volunteer Incentive Program (VIP), Training Resources and
Data Exchange (TRADE), Regional Delivery, and Degrees at a Distance
Program (DDP).
USFA uses the TRADE network to identify training needs regionally;
USFA also meets periodically with national organizations such as the
North American Fire Training Directors (NAFTD), International
Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) Professional Development Committee,
the National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC), and other organizations to
plan delivery and development needs. In addition, USFA has developed
one of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA's) most
comprehensive formal training evaluation systems. Information,
feedback, and cues from a variety of internal and external sources are
used in curriculum planning and in fine-tuning courses. Sources include
post-course and long-term evaluations, information from
Superintendent's luncheons, the Superintendent's annual input/exchange
at the IAFC conference, contract instructor debriefings, reports from
curriculum meetings, and written and verbal input from thousands of
users, supporters, and partners.
Key to USFA's curriculum management approach is staff expertise and
responsibility. USFA uses a team approach to needs assessment,
curriculum planning, course development, course delivery, and course
handoff. Training Specialists, the Instructional Systems Specialists,
the Program Specialists, the Field Managers, the Program Managers,
Program Support Assistants and Secretaries, and all members of the
management team contribute their skills and expertise to the management
of the curriculum. An essential part of their daily responsibilities is
to ``scan the environment'' for important issues and lessons learned
that will be incorporated into course work.
Q9. Please describe how USFA's planned update for the National Fire
Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) will facilitate faster reporting,
increased participation, and increased accessibility. What measures
will be taken to ensure that the quality of the database is not
compromised? Since fire losses in the U.S. are still the highest in the
developed world, is the information drawn from the data being
effectively applied? What more can be done to ensure that the data
drawn from these past incidents is put into practice?
A9. Fire departments that choose to use a NFIRS Web browser based
reporting tool will no longer need to download, install, and configure
client software. The anticipated result will be a faster and easier
initial reporting experience. Small departments without technically
experienced personnel that may have found it daunting to participate in
NFIRS due to technical or financial barriers can begin reporting
immediately as long as they have access to a PC, Internet connection
and standard browser.
USFA currently collects NFIRS data on-line via the Internet using a
client-based data collection software tool. All data that is currently
reported on-line directly into the national NFIRS server is first
validated before entry into the database using a tool that tests
against the standard NFIRS 5.0 data edits and validation rules. These
same data validation routines will be run on data reported through the
new Web based application.
Fire losses in the U.S. are no longer the highest in the
industrialized world. According to 2007 World Fire Statistics Center
statistics, among industrialized nations, the U.S. ranks 18th in direct
fire losses as a percentage of national GDP and 7th in fire death rate.
Trends in fires, civilian fire deaths, and civilian fire injuries have
been steadily declining over the past three decades, thus indicating
the data are being effectively applied to the fire problem to reduce
losses. The data compiled from NFIRS will continue to be used to inform
fire prevention programs so as to ensure trend audiences are being
attended to (such as the elderly and young). By combining the fire
prevention and fire data responsibilities, USFA will be better able to
respond to the needs of those at risk.
USFA and other organizations such as the Consumer Product Safety
Commission (CPSC) and the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)
continuously analyze the collected NFIRS data to identify emerging fire
trends. Additionally, USFA, states, local governments and others uses
these data to target prevention and mitigation programs toward high
risk groups to aid in reducing the fire problem.
Q10. Is USFA involved in activities to aid local communities in
evaluating optimal fire and emergency services asset management and
distribution to achieve the greatest level of community protection,
especially in disaster situations that strain resources?
A10. The United States Fire Administration (USFA) prepares local
departments to prioritize and establish their own level of community
protection. USFA efforts include publications, projects, classes,
training, conferences, seminars, symposia and other events.
The USFA provides a series of training classes to the fire and
emergency services that support and provide information for community
protection. Almost all of the 64 plus residential courses USFA, through
the National Fire Academy (NFA), provide support to planning for every
day events as well as natural and man made disasters. The NFA also
conducts courses in community risk management, long-term planning and
emergency command and control that focus on extremely large and complex
incidents involving multiple agencies.
Questions submitted by Representative Phil Gingrey
Q1. In Captain Livingston's testimony, he calls on USFA to be more
proactive in supporting inter-operable standards from Project 25 and
training and operations standards from NFPA. What activities has USFA
undertaken to support wider availability and adoption of inter-operable
communications technology? What ability does USFA have to influence the
adoption of both sets of standards?
A1. The United States Fire Administration (USFA), supported by S&T
Directorate SAFECOM\1\ funding, initiated a fire service communications
study that is still underway and will be used to update an aged USFA
Fire Department Communications manual. When complete, the updated
document will provide information to the fire service educating and
encouraging them on the use of inter-operable communications. USFA was
also supported by SAFECOM for educational programs on communications
operability at a national fire service conference. Through these
efforts, additional fire service members would be better informed about
adoption of inter-operable communications technology.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ The Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2007
gave the Office of Emergency Communications (OEC) the responsibility to
administer certain elements of the SAFECOM program. SAFECOM's
authorities related to research, development, testing, evaluation, and
standards will remain in the Office for Inter-operability and
Compatibility (OIC) within the Science and Technology Directorate.
Under its authorities, OIC is working with the National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST) to support the efforts of the emergency
response community and industry to accelerate the development of the
Project 25 (P25) suite of standards.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The USFA does not have any legislative or legal authority to
influence the adoption of any standards.
Q2. USFA trains significantly more people through State and local
partnerships than through the facilities at Emmitsburg. How does NFA
design courses for presentation outside of Emmitsburg? What
requirements does USFA place on groups seeking to provide NFA-approved
courses?
A2. The Unites States Fire Administration (USFA), through the National
Fire Academy (NFA) offers two-day courses are well suited for weekend
delivery to the Nation's volunteer firefighters. When any new course is
being developed, the NFA considers the possibility of assembling some
modules into another coherent (but shorter) course. Modules (depending
upon the course) are a few hours in length, convenient to evening hours
training.
Unless they require special facilities such as laboratories, burn
buildings or graphics equipment, well-designed courses can be presented
anywhere. NFA has conducted many of the resident courses at host
facilities around the Nation.
Groups seeking to deliver a NFA course must coordinate delivery
through the appropriate State fire service training agency to ensure
quality is maintained, the students are properly registered and they
receive credit whatever qualifications successful completion of the
course provides. In some cases, the delivery is funded by the State or
the host agency.
Questions submitted by Representative Judy Biggert
Q1. Why have many local fire departments not adopted national
standards that would reduce the number of firefighter line of duty
deaths? Are their specific barriers that hinder the adoption of these
standards?
A1. The major specific barrier to adoption of such standards is cost.
There are numerous fire departments in the United States that do not
have adequate resources to do adapt and implement such standards. The
United States Fire Administrations (USFA's) A Second Needs Assessment
of the Fire Service illustrates numerous examples of fire departments
having inadequate protective equipment and not possessing required
training to meet such standards and, in some cases, fire departments
having no protective equipment at all. The Assistance to Firefighter
Grants (AFG) program which is run by FEMA's Grants Program Directorate
has been assisting in getting money to departments to meet baseline
needs. This program only assists in providing the baseline amount of
equipment to departments and is not a sustainment program, which means
eventually, departments will have to secure funding to replace or
repair items bought under the AFG.
Another hindrance is the time requirements for firefighters to
complete training and meet the standards. In the volunteer fire service
the challenge may be a regular paying job and family demands; while in
the career fire service, it may be the inability to place companies out
of service while firefighters participate in training or the cost of
overtime to conduct training outside regular hours.
Q2. Does USFA provide any guidance with regard to maintenance and
upgrade of the infrastructure of local fire facilities to ensure that
they remain adequate as firefighting technology and personnel change
over time?
A2. United States Fire Administration (USFA) staff serve as liaisons to
National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Occupational Safety and
Health technical committees responsible for the development of
consensus standards relating to fire station facilities design and
personnel safety. These standards have identified specific areas
regarding personal training areas, decontamination capabilities,
sanitation and air quality, fire resistant design and alerting,
sleeping quarters, and apparatus size and design. In addition, the
standards also address care, maintenance, and storage of personal
protective clothing and equipment. As firefighting technologies evolve,
the standards are revised to address these areas that are primary to
firefighter health and safety. Additionally, USFA tracks and identifies
firefighter occupational health and injury statistics that are utilized
in the committee process for standard revision. USFA staff also uses
that information for curriculum updates and revisions.
USFA works closely with the DHS National Operations Center (NOC),
National Infrastructure Coordination Center (NICC), Office of
Intelligence & Analysis (IA), Office of Infrastructure Protection (IP),
Infrastructure Partnerships Division (IPD), Chemical & Nuclear
Preparedness & Protection Division (CNPPD), and USFA's own Emergency
Management and Response--Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EMR-
ISAC) to provide timely information directly to the Nation's fire and
emergency services in order to protect the personnel, facilities, and
communications resources of each agency from natural, manmade and
technological disasters. In keeping with its role in information
sharing, the USFA EMR-ISAC is a key participant in the Homeland
Security Information Network (HSIN) working group that was convened to
establish an Emergency Services Sector (ESS) portal. This portal will
serve as another mechanism in which critical information may be shared,
chronicled, and warehoused for the ESS.
USFA is an approved member serving on the InterAgency Board for
Equipment Standardization and Inter-operability (IAB). The mission of
the IAB is to establish and coordinate local, State, and federal
standardization, inter-operability, compatibility, and responder health
and safety to prepare for, train and respond to, mitigate, and recover
from any incident by identifying requirements for an all-hazards
incident response with a special emphasis on Chemical, Biological,
Radiological, Nuclear or Explosive (CBRNE) issues.
The Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) Program, managed by
FEMA's Grants Program Directorate awards grants to fire departments to
enhance their ability to protect the public and fire service personnel
from fire and related hazards. There are three types of grants
available: Assistance to Firefighters Grants (AFG), Fire Prevention and
Safety (FP&S), and Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response
(SAFER). Additional information is available at
www.firegrantssupport.com. Each of these grant programs assists local
fire departments in meeting their preparedness goals.
In training, these topics are included in the budget, planning,
risk management and command courses. ``Best practices'' are also
highlighted and discussed.
USFA has developed a document Safety and Health Considerations for
the Design of Fire and Emergency Medical Services Stations that
provides guidance on the design or remodeling of fire and emergency
medical services stations and other facilities in terms of safety and
health concerns of personnel who must work and live in those
facilities.
Answers to Post-Hearing Questions
Responses by Sivaraj Shyam Sunder, Director, Building and Fire Research
Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology,
Department of Commerce
Questions submitted by Chairman David Wu
Q1. How does NIST facilitate technology transfer of successful
research results into products and practices for the fire service
community? Do any R&D efforts relate to lowering the cost of equipment
for fire departments? How does NIST measure impact of its fire R&D
efforts on fire prevention, firefighting, and fire recovery?
A1. There are multiple means that NIST uses to facilitate technology
transfer of our R&D results to the fire service community:
<bullet> presentations of research results at national
conferences on firefighting technologies, including:
the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)
Annual World Safety Conference and Expo,
the International Association of Fire Fighters
(IAFF) Redmond Symposium,
the annual conference of the International
Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC),
the annual Conference of Fire Safety Instructors,
and
conferences of the International Association of
Arson Investigators (IAAI);
<bullet> organizing workshops and special seminars with the
fire service community aimed at planning research and
disseminating the results;
<bullet> serving on fire standards committees of NFPA,
Underwriters laboratory (UL), and ASTM;
<bullet> serving on the Science Advisory Committee of the
National Association of State Fire Marshals;
<bullet> having a NIST staff member from Gaithersburg spend
one day a week in Emmitsburg at the National Fire Academy (NFA)
to help plan and coordinate research programs;
<bullet> working with the NFA to incorporate the results of
the research into the curriculum, and participating in the
actual instruction;
<bullet> publishing an on-line newsletter, FIRE.GOV, in
partnership with the United States Fire Administration (USFA)
that contains easy to read articles specifically aimed at the
fire services and describes ongoing research activities around
the world;
<bullet> issuing reports, CDs, DVDs, and publishing articles
in the archived literature, and making these available through
our web site.
<bullet> supporting pre-competitive SBIR research on promising
new fire service technologies.
Our research affects the cost of firefighting equipment in two
ways. First, by advancing measurement and predictive methods for the
way fires spread, we are able to better determine the impact of a fire
mitigating strategy, and to work with standards developing
organizations to incorporate standards that are based upon meaningful
performance metrics and provide a uniform playing field for competing
technologies and manufacturers. By promoting performance-based
standards for firefighting equipment, NIST enables the private sector
to innovate and compete, often at reduced costs, while ensuring a
satisfactory level of safety. Science-based performance metrics for
these technologies also serve to protect the investment of local
communities. Recent examples of standards improved by or based upon
NIST research include thermal imaging cameras, turn-out gear, and
positive pressure ventilation systems.
The second way that NIST research affects equipment costs is
through the Building and Fire Research Laboratory's Office of Applied
Economics, which conducts economic analyses and develops decision tools
to assist local communities in deciding among multiple strategies or
technologies in which to invest.
NIST R&D is geared toward fire prevention and firefighting
technologies; no research is currently underway in fire recovery. The
impact of the NIST fire R&D effort is demonstrated in several ways:
<bullet> improvements to standards for fire detection, fire
suppression, and flammability of materials (for example, the
newly adopted test methods for mattress flammability and for
reduced ignition-prone cigarettes.)
<bullet> improvements to computer simulation tools for
predicting how fires spread within a building, from building to
building, and the wildland-urban interface from wildlands to
buildings.
<bullet> fire service standards developed or modified, and
technologies marketed by the private sector that were enabled
by NIST research.
<bullet> improved practices adopted by the fire services.
<bullet> requests for NIST information by the fire services
(CDs, videos, reports) and invitations to speak at local,
national and international meetings with substantial fire
service involvement.
<bullet> new/modified courses taught by the National Fire
Academy based upon NIST R&D.
Q2. How has NIST's work on fires at the wildland-urban interface been
transferred to either policy or technology to mitigate structures in
these areas?
A2. NIST, with funds provided by Congress in FY 2007 as part of the
American Competitiveness Initiative, has recently ramped up its
research into fires at the wildland-urban interface, with the objective
of developing tools for reducing community losses in wildland-urban
interface fires. These tools will assist communities in their fire risk
assessment and choice of economically balanced mitigation strategies
that limit the ignition of residences and improve firefighter and
community safety. In past work supported by the Pacific Southwest
Research Station (PSW) of the Forest Service under the interagency
National Fire Plan, NIST provided the heat transfer model to ecoSmart-
FIRE which is the fire component of ecoSmart. ecoSmart is a web based
tool for helping homeowners choose landscaping options that are more
fire safe and evaluates the economic trade of the options. Funding from
NIST to the University of Florida and the Southern Research Station of
the Forest Service supported flammability measurements of commonly used
ornamental vegetation. Ratings of the vegetation have been made
publicly available. Another economic tool is currently being developed
that will be spatially-explicit, allowing communities to tailor and
target cost-effective wildfire mitigation solutions to their geographic
area of concern.
NIST research is beginning to fill in the major scientific gaps
necessary to allow a transformation to performance-based codes and
standards for building and protecting communities at the edge of
wildlands. We are making progress in our understanding of the role of
fire brands, produced by both burning vegetation and structures, in
spreading the fire. A wildland-urban interface fire behavior computer
model is under development. Unlike wildland fire models this model will
include the structural fuels which differ significantly from wildland
fuels in their ignition and burning characteristics. We are following
the standards work being done in California regarding the proper design
of roof and eave vents to prevent entrance by fire brands, and are
currently on the ground in southern California to better understand the
fire behavior and the influence of the housing and community layout on
the extent of damage encountered.
NIST is actively participating with organizations that influence
policy and building codes. NIST staff serves on:
<bullet> the National Blue Ribbon Panel on the Wildland-Urban
Interface for the International Code Council (ICC);
<bullet> the Subcommittee on Disaster Reduction of Wildland
Fires to the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources of
the President's National Science and Technology Council, as co-
chairs;
<bullet> the ArcView Review Technical Panel for National Fire
Protection Association's FIREWISE Program,
<bullet> the U.S. Forest Service Fuel Characteristic
Classification System National Review Panel, and
<bullet> the NFPA Forest and Rural Fire Protection Standards
Committee.
Q3. In fiscal year 2007, how much funding did the USFA contribute to
NIST fire-related research activities? How has this amount changed
since FY 2004?
A3. Because of recent and multiple reorganizations of USFA within the
Department of Homeland Security, an accounting of the exact source of
fire research funding from the USFA is not easily collected. With that
caveat, in FY 2007 NIST received $494K directly traceable to the FEMA/
NETC Acquisition Section, Emmitsburg, MD. This compares to $450K in FY
2004. Please note that the National Emergency Training Center was under
USFA in FY 2004, but currently is under FEMA.
Question submitted by Representative Jim Matheson
Q1. In Dr. Sunder's testimony, there was reference to tools that NIST
has created to help communities assess fire risk and make economically-
balanced choices in fighting fires in the wildland-urban interface.
What are some of these tools and what strategies are communities using
to protect themselves from this type of fire?
A1. NIST, with funds provided by Congress in FY 2007 as part of the
American Competitiveness Initiative, has recently ramped up its
research into fires at the wildland-urban interface, with the objective
of developing tools for reducing community losses in wildland-urban
interface fires. These tools will assist communities in their fire risk
assessment and choice of economically balanced mitigation strategies
that limit the ignition of residences and improve firefighter and
community safety. In past work supported by the Pacific Southwest
Research Station (PSW) of the Forest Service under the interagency
National Fire Plan, NIST provided the heat transfer model to ecoSmart-
FIRE which is the fire component of ecoSmart. ecoSmart is a web based
tool for helping homeowners choose landscaping options that are more
fire safe and evaluates the economic trade of the options. Funding from
NIST to the University of Florida and the Southern Research Station of
the Forest Service supported flammability measurements of commonly used
ornamental vegetation. Ratings of the vegetation have been made
publicly available Another economic tool is currently being developed
that will be spatially-explicit, allowing communities to tailor and
target cost-effective wildfire mitigation solutions to their geographic
area of concern.
NIST research is beginning to fill in the major scientific gaps
necessary to allow a transformation to performance-based codes and
standards for building and protecting communities at the edge of
wildlands. We are making progress in our understanding of the role of
fire brands, produced by both burning vegetation and structures, in
spreading the fire. A wildland-urban interface fire behavior computer
model is under development. Unlike wildland fire models this model will
include the structural fuels which differ significantly from wildland
fuels in their ignition and burning characteristics. We are following
the standards work being done in California regarding the proper design
of roof and eave vents to prevent entrance by fire brands, and are
currently on the ground in southern California to better understand the
fire behavior and the influence of the housing and community layout on
the extent of damage encountered.
NIST is actively participating with organizations that influence
policy and building codes. NIST staff serves on:
<bullet> the National Blue Ribbon Panel on the Wildland-Urban
Interface for the International Code Council (ICC);
<bullet> the Subcommittee on Disaster Reduction of Wildland
Fires to the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources of
the President's National Science and Technology Council, as co-
chairs;
<bullet> the ArcView Review Technical Panel for National Fire
Protection Association's FIREWISE Program,
<bullet> the U.S. Forest Service Fuel Characteristic
Classification System National Review Panel, and the NFPA
Forest and Rural Fire Protection Standards Committee.
Question submitted by Representative Laura Richardson
Q1. Is there a need for standards to ensure that all fire hydrants
operate when they are needed in an emergency? Please provide whatever
information NIST can related to this subject.
A1. The maintenance and inspection of fire hydrants is a State and
local issue. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) provides
standards and guidance which State and local jurisdictions may choose
to adopt to ensure the proper operation of the fire hydrant and the
adequacy of the water supply.
NFPA 1, Uniform Fire CodeTM (section 18.3) describes the general
requirements for water supplies and hydrants. ``An approved water
supply capable of supplying the required fire flow for fire protection
shall be provided to all premises upon which facilities, buildings, or
portions of buildings are hereafter constructed or moved into the
jurisdiction. . .. The number and type of fire hydrants and connections
to other approved water supplies shall be capable of delivering the
required fire flow and shall be provided at approved locations.'' Annex
H of NFPA 1 provides guidance for determining the required fire flow,
and Annex I of NFPA 1 provides guidance for determining the number and
location of fire hydrants.
NFPA 25, Standard for the Inspection, Testing, and Maintenance of
Water-Based Fire Protection Systems, generally applies more to private
fire protection systems but has requirements related to inspecting,
maintaining, and testing hydrants. Section 7.3.2 of NFPA 25 states that
hydrants shall be tested annually to ensure proper functioning, that
each hydrant shall be opened fully and water flowed until all foreign
material has cleared, and that the flow shall be maintained for not
less than one minute.
NFPA 291, Recommended Practice for Fire Flow Testing and Marking of
Hydrants, is used for guidance in the testing of hydrants to determine
how much fire flow is actually available.
There are numerous techniques for monitoring water pressure going
to a fire hydrant, and sensors are available to indicate the amount of
water flowing when the hydrant is opened. However, monitoring devices
are only as good as their maintenance. If the current NFPA standards
and guidance for installing and testing fire hydrants are followed in a
community, and any deficiencies uncovered during inspection and testing
are remedied, then the community should not be experiencing fire
hydrant failures. The addition of remote sensing devices for monitoring
water pressure and/or flow, and the development of standards for their
operation, would not appreciably increase the level of protection for
the community over the current level provided by NFPA 1, NFPA 25 and
NFPA 291. It is NIST's opinion that the cited NFPA codes, standards and
guidance are adequate to address.
Answers to Post-Hearing Questions
Responses by Steven P. Westermann, President and Chief Fire Officer,
International Association of Fire Chiefs
Questions submitted by Chairman David Wu
Q1. You mentioned in your testimony that over a million firefighters
nationwide have not had the benefit of U.S. Fire Administration
training. To what extent, due to a lack of resources, is USFA failing
to meet the demand for emergency personnel training and public
education opportunities?
A1. The National Fire Academy (NFA) is America's premier fire training
institution. According to the October 2, 2007, testimony of Chief
Gregory B. Cade, the U.S. Fire Administrator, the NFA trained 8,278
students on-campus and 76,918 students through off-campus/distance
learning training courses. In addition, the NFA partners with
accredited State fire training programs, which trained over 750,000
firefighters last year.
Increased funding would allow the NFA to enhance both its course
development and outreach efforts. The NFA uses course work distributed
over the Internet to shorten the length of time that a student needs to
spend taking classes at the Emmitsburg campus. With an increase in
funding, the USFA could make more classes available over the Internet
and consider other new technologies for distributing educational
content.
The ``train-the-trainer'' programs, which focus on training fire
chiefs and the fire departments' training officers, are especially
helpful for volunteer departments. Many volunteer departments do not
have the funding to send their volunteer firefighters to multi-week
classes at Emmitsburg, and the volunteer firefighters may not be able
to make the time commitment. A ``train-the-trainer'' class allows the
training officer to travel to Emmitsburg for classes and then pass this
information to the other firefighters in the fire department. Increased
funding for the USFA would allow the NFA to develop additional ``train
the trainer'' programs.
The NFA also benefits from close cooperation with State and local
training organizations. When training can be supplied in the home state
or locality, efficiencies are created by saving travel costs and
allowing for more flexible training program delivery schedules. In
addition, local instructors are able to adapt training programs to meet
the unique needs of local communities. Currently, the NFA provides each
state with $25,000 annually to cover the costs associated with the
delivery of these programs. This amount may not be enough to offset the
costs incurred by State training facilities. With increased funding,
the USFA could provide an increased amount to State training programs
to run these vital programs.
Q2. Do you believe that the National Fire Academy (NFA) training
activities have an adequate balance between preparedness and response
for terrorist events versus the myriad other emergency events and
management issues fire departments must confront? Does USFA have a
strong enough all-hazards approach? What about the Federal Emergency
Management Association [sic] (FEMA)?
A2. In general, we believe that the NFA has an adequate balance of
courses covering all hazards. The NFA classes cover a wide range of
classes including hazardous materials response, arson investigation,
tactical operations, leadership, and the response to terrorism. The NFA
should review its curricula to ensure that its classes are up-to-date
and include information about the new National Response Framework
(NRF), the National Incident Management System (NIMS), and other new
developments at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In
addition, the DHS should leverage the USFA's and NFA's expertise at
developing training materials to better educate first responders about
the new NRF and its annexes, the NIMS, and other DHS initiatives. By
collaborating with the NFA, the DHS can develop training courses and
guides that can be easily understood and used by first responders
during emergencies.
Regarding whether the USFA and the FEMA have achieved the
appropriate balance of preparedness and response capabilities for both
terrorism and natural hazards, the IAFC is pleased that the USFA and
FEMA have adopted a more robust ``all-hazards'' approach. The Fiscal
Year 2007 Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act of 2007
(P.L. 109-295) included legislation that implemented a number of
reforms to focus the FEMA on using an ``all-hazards'' approach. The
IAFC is encouraged by the FEMA's recent ``all hazards'' focus in the
draft NRF, and other administrative changes. In addition, Chief Cade
has made ``all-hazards'' preparedness a focus at the USFA.
Q3. Administrator Cade mentioned in his testimony that USFA strongly
advocates for fire departments to be the centers for emergency
preparedness in their jurisdictions. Is this message reaching local
departments? Does USFA provide enough guidance to help departments
assume this role?
A3. In most communities, fire departments are the lead agencies for
emergency preparedness. They provide emergency preparedness education
through ``open houses;'' presentations to schools and community
organizations; residential fire sprinkler campaigns; smoke alarm
distribution and training; and building code inspections. The USFA has
a number of educational materials available on the web and through fire
prevention training at the NFA to help local fire departments promote
emergency preparedness in their communities. The DHS's Assistance to
Firefighters Grant (AFG) program's Fire Prevention and Safety grants
also fund initiatives to educate the public about emergency
preparedness at the national and local levels. In addition, the
Emergency Management Institute (EMI) plays a large role in this
emergency preparedness outreach training. The EMI was transferred out
of the USFA's jurisdiction as part of the Fiscal Year 2007 Department
of Homeland Security Appropriations Act (P.L. 109-295).
Of special importance is the USFA's effort to advocate the
increased use of residential fire sprinklers. Currently, only two
percent of American homes have fire sprinklers, despite the important
lifesaving role that they play. According to the National Fire
Protection Association, ``when sprinklers are present in structures. .
., the fire death rate per 1,000 reported structure fires is lower by
at least 57 percent and the rate of property damage per reported
structure fire is lower by one-third to two-thirds (34-68 percent).''
Congress should continue to support the USFA's efforts to work with the
fire service to inform the American public about the advantages of
installing fire sprinklers in homes.
Q4. How would you characterize USFA's leadership role with respects to
promoting the adoption of national standards and other measures to
decrease firefighter line of duty deaths? What more could they be
doing?
A4. The 16 Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives, developed under the
auspices of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, encourage the
development of national standards for emergency response policies and
procedures, and firefighter training, certification, and
qualifications. The IAFC believes that the USFA has been an effective
advocate for the use of national voluntary consensus standards to
improve firefighter health and safety. National voluntary consensus
standards, such as those developed by the National Fire Protection
Association, include input from a number of stakeholders, including
fire chiefs; private industry; federal agencies, such as the USFA;
career and volunteer firefighters; fire service organizations; and
other interested parties. These voluntary consensus standards currently
cover many aspects of firefighter training, equipment, incident
operations, etc.
It is important to recognize that the cost of implementing these
national voluntary consensus standards can be expensive for both major
metropolitan departments and rural fire departments. Grant programs,
such as the DHS's AFG (popularly known as the ``FIRE'' grant) program,
play a critical role in helping fire departments fund training and
exercises, and purchase equipment that is consistent with national
voluntary consensus standards. The DHS' SAFER grant program helps fire
departments hire career, or recruit and retain volunteer, firefighters
to come into compliance with the staffing requirements of the NFPA 1710
``Standard on Fire Deployment and Operations.''
Questions submitted by Representative Jim Matheson
Q1. Chief Westermann, in your testimony you referenced collaboration
between the USFA and the Department of Agriculture and Department of
Interior. This issue is particularly important in a state like mine
where wildfires often require coordination between the U.S. Forest
Service and local fire departments. How do these agencies interact with
one another? Are there ways to improve communication and coordination
so that these agencies are prepared to work together to fight fire?
A1. Background: In Utah, local fire departments often work directly
with the U.S. Forest Service to fight fires that encroach in
residential areas. Despite coordination, many fire departments and
other first responders still face challenges in communicating with one
another.
Good coordination between the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and local
fire departments can be an essential element to providing adequate
wildland fire protection for our country. In some areas, the
relationships between the USFS and the local fire departments are very
strong, while the relationships need work in other areas. The IAFC has
been working for several years with the USFS and the U.S. Department of
the Interior (DOI) in order to improve the relationship between the
local fire service and the federal wildland fire agencies. We believe
that in order to be most effective in the wildland and the wildland
urban interface area, local, State and federal (local units) agencies
must work together in a seamless and integrated manner.
However, we have discovered that it takes a significant amount of
work at the local, State, and national levels in order to develop a
truly seamless and integrated response to wildland fires, where local,
State and federal (local units) agencies respond together as if they
are one organization. In responding to a wildland fire, mutual aid can
be quickly deployed from other states, and the different responding
organizations must respect each other's training, qualifications, and
organizational systems.
Grant programs such as the Volunteer Fire Assistance program (U.S.
Department of Agriculture) and the Rural Fire Assistance (DOI) program
provide critical support for the training and safety equipment that
allows local governments to be effective in fighting wildland fires.
These programs also help to improve the relationship between the
federal agencies and the local governments.
In order to enhance communication and coordination between local
and federal agencies, Congress also must address the issues surrounding
wildland fire funding. The state of fuels in our forest, demographic
changes and the changing climate will all have a significant impact on
the wildland fire problem and the cost of fires in the future. The fire
suppression budget for the USFS should be adequately funded and
partitioned from their general budget.
As we move forward into the future, it is important to note that no
one group--local, State, federal or tribal--can effectively or
efficiently address the wildland fire problem alone; we must all work
together and at all levels of government.
Again, I would like to thank you for your dedication to meeting the
needs of America's fire service by moving to reauthorize the U.S. Fire
Administration this year.
Answers to Post-Hearing Questions
Responses by Robert Livingston, Legislative Director of the Oregon
State Council of Fire Fighters, International Association of
Fire Fighters
Questions submitted by Chairman David Wu
Q1. Do you believe that the National Fire Academy (NFA) training
activities have an adequate balance between preparedness and response
for terrorist events versus the myriad other emergency events and
management issues fire departments must confront? Does the U.S. Fire
Administration (USFA) have a strong enough all-hazards approach? What
about the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)?
A1. Having not had the opportunity to participate in the Academy's
training, I cannot speak personally to whether its training activities
are, in practice, adequately balanced. That said, the fire service has
always utilized an all-hazards approach to preparedness and response.
For a firefighter, it doesn't matter whether an emergency is natural or
man-made, or the result of an accident or a terrorist attack. The
firefighter's response is the same. As an experienced member of the
fire service, Administrator Cade fully understands the importance of an
all-hazards approach; the programs and activities of the U.S. Fire
Administration appropriately reflect this understanding.
We have been concerned with the priority placed on terrorism
preparedness and response within the Department of Homeland Security,
and have been actively involved in efforts to refocus the department on
all-hazards. In 2006, the IAFF worked closely with the Congress in
crafting and passing legislation to reform FEMA. We were pleased that
the final bill enacted into law applied an all-hazards approach to the
Agency's emergency preparedness and response activities. Since that
time, we believe the Agency has perceptibly moved in this direction--
the recent positive federal response to the California wildfires is one
illustration of FEMA's commitment to natural, as well as man-made,
disasters.
Q2. You mention in your testimony that other federal agencies involved
with firefighting activity do not necessarily engage with interest
groups representing the fire service community. Do you have specific
examples? What role should USFA take to encourage greater cooperation
and coordination between federal agencies and the local fire service?
A2. Myriad federal agencies administer programs and provide funding
that impact the fire service, but unlike USFA, these agencies often
lack sufficient, accurate knowledge about the fire service and the work
firefighters do. As a result, the activities and programs of federal
agencies sometimes complicate the fire services' efforts to serve their
communities and carry out their mission.
For example, the Department of Justice administers the Public
Safety Officer Benefit (PSOB) program to provide death and disability
benefits to the families of public safety officers killed or injured in
the line-of-duty. Congress recently amended the program to award
benefits to the families of officers who suffered a fatal heart attack
or stroke while involved in a non-routine stressful or strenuous
physical activity while in the line of duty. DOJ bureaucrats, however,
denied benefits to certain applicants based on the assumption that the
emergency activities the deceased officers were undertaking were
``routine'' for a firefighter. Although in clear violation of
Congressional intent, DOJ's determinations resulted from a basic lack
of knowledge about the physical and mental stress placed upon
firefighters during even ``routine'' emergency activities.
USFA can help overcome this sort of disconnect by establishing
relationships with other federal agencies, both within and beyond the
Department of Homeland Security, to educate such agencies about the
fire service, as well as act as an advocate for the expertise we can
bring to bear throughout the Federal Government and its activities.
Q3. Do USFA public education and fire awareness programs adequately
address the needs of the populations that career fire departments
serve, especially those in major metropolitan areas?
A3. USFA does an admirable job of educating citizens about residential
fire safety, and does pay particular attention to needs which may be
unique to urban area populations, such as high-rise fire safety and
arson awareness. USFA does an especially good job in school outreach
and educating elementary school children about basic fire safety.
The frequent presence of immigrants and individuals who speak
languages other than English present unique fire safety challenges to
large urban areas. Cultural differences, language barriers, and a lack
of familiarity with local emergency services provide unique challenges
which may impede fire-safe practices within these communities. USFA's
fire safety efforts should provide an increased emphasis on these
unique populations.
Questions submitted by Representative Phil Gingrey
Q1. In your testimony you advocated for a greater emphasis on
Emergency Medical Service needs by USFA and noted that fire departments
provide EMS in nearly all major cities. What is the prevalence of fire-
based EMS in smaller towns and rural communities? For those areas
served by non-fire-based EMS, is USFA a credible and appropriate agency
to provide training management and support?
A1. There is a correlation between community size and the prevalence of
fire-based EMS. According to the National Fire Protection Association
(NFPA), 100 percent of fire departments serving cities of 500,000 or
more provide EMS, 98 percent and 95 percent of departments serve cities
of 250,000 to 499,999, and 100,000 to 249,999, respectively. On the
other end of the spectrum, 52 percent of fire departments serving
communities with a population of 2,500 or less provide EMS.
As this data demonstrates, fire-based EMS is the prevalent delivery
system for pre-hospital 911 emergency medical response in the majority
of American communities. This fact alone requires that USFA fully
integrate EMS training and preparedness into its mission. However, even
for communities that officially designate some entity other than the
fire service as the primary EMS provider, under most true emergency
conditions, firefighters still deliver on-scene health care. In such
communities, it is critically important that local firefighters be
properly trained and equipped to provide on-scene patient care for the
survivors of fires, accidents, and other incidents to which
firefighters respond. By providing training and support to these
communities, USFA can help ensure the delivery of timely and effective
patient care in an emergency.
Q2. You also report in your testimony that hazardous materials
incidents have skyrocketed in number and danger over the past few
years. Can you put this into perspective for the Committee? What are
the unique implications of hazmat incidents for training and equipping
firefighters?
A2. According to the National Fire Protection Association, fire
department calls related to hazardous materials emergency response have
more than doubled in the past twenty years, from 171,500 hazmat calls
in 1986 to 375,000 such calls in 2005. As the number of hazardous
materials incidents have increased, so too has the complexity and
dangerous nature of responding to such incidents multiplied. This is
due to the increased transportation of hazardous materials, the growing
prevalence of chemicals in our daily lives, and the very real threat
posed by terrorism, whether chemical, biological, radiological,
nuclear, or explosive.
These factors contribute to the threat of hazmat incidents in every
geographical region and communities of all sizes. As a result, it is
critically important that all firefighters, whether professional or
volunteer, are adequately trained and equipped to respond to potential
incidents.
Unfortunately, in too many communities responder training falls far
short of what is necessary to ensure a safe and efficient response. In
their Second Needs Assessment of the U.S. Fire Service, NFPA estimates
that 38 percent of firefighters whose duties involve hazmat response
lack formal training of any kind.
Furthermore, only 29 percent of fire departments report all
personnel to be trained in hazmat response at some level. And for those
firefighters who are trained, the level of training provided is often
insufficient to their duties and responsibilities. The minimum level of
training needed by first responders is ``operations'' level. Operations
training is specifically designed for the initial emergency response
which occurs within minutes of the incident being reported. These
emergency responders stabilize the situation and prepare the emergency
scene for the hazmat specialists who will undertake direct mitigation.
They are trained to contain the release from a safe distance, keep it
from spreading and prevent exposures.
All firefighters should also be required to undergo annual
refresher training to provide responders an opportunity to brush up on
perhaps seldom-used knowledge and skills, and familiarize responders
with new technology which may be used or encountered during a response.
A lack of sufficient staff and appropriate equipment also poses a
major challenge to most communities facing a hazmat incident. Some
jurisdictions lack even the most basic equipment for hazardous
materials response, such as turn-out gear and self-contained breathing
apparatus, much less the more advanced equipment required for
radiological and nuclear emergency response. Furthermore, two-thirds of
the Nation's fire departments lack sufficient personnel to carry out a
safe and effective response to a structural fire, much less an incident
involving hazardous materials. Meeting these basic needs of our
nation's fire departments is necessary to protect the public from
everyday incidents as well as incidents involving hazardous materials.
Answers to Post-Hearing Questions
Responses by Gordon Henderson, Deputy Chief of Operations, Rome-Floyd
County Fire Department; Past President of the Georgia State
Firefighters Association, National Volunteer Fire Council
Questions submitted by Chairman David Wu
Q1. Do you believe that the National Fire Academy (NFA) training
activities have an adequate balance between preparedness and response
for terrorist events versus the myriad other emergency events and
management issues fire departments must confront? Does the U.S. Fire
Administration (USFA) have a strong enough all-hazards approach? What
about the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)?
A1. Although there has been more of an emphasis placed on preparedness
and response to terrorist events in recent years, generally the
National Fire Academy (NFA) does maintain a good balance of offering
courses that address the broad range of issues that firefighters must
be prepared to deal with. However, the NVFC is concerned that in recent
years NFA has not been provided the resources to update course
curriculum for many of their core non-terrorism specific courses.
The NVFC believes that the United States Fire Administration's
(USFA's) focus is on all hazards. The NVFC believes that Congress could
strengthen USFA's ability to focus on all hazards by passing a
reauthorization that specifies that emergency medical services,
wildland fire response, and hazardous materials response are core
components of USFA's mission.
When the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was merged into
the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the top priority within DHS
was preparing for and responding to terrorist events. This focus
filtered into FEMA even as pieces of FEMA were transferred to different
directorates within DHS. Since Hurricane Katrina, there has been
greater recognition of the importance of an all-hazards approach. With
the appointment of R. David Paulison as FEMA Administrator and passage
of legislation reorganizing FEMA in the 2006 DHS Appropriations Act,
FEMA has improved dramatically in terms of its commitment to addressing
all-hazards.
Q2. You mention in your testimony that USFA has worked to condense
classes and shorten the amount of time a volunteer firefighter would
have to spend in the classroom. You also mention that USFA recently
partnered with the National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC) to develop
the ``Recruitment and Retention Guide for the Volunteer Emergency
Services.'' Have these efforts had an impact on recruitment and
retention for the volunteer fire service? What else could USFA do to
address the recruitment and retention problems faced by volunteer
departments across the country?
A2. Through condensed courses, the Volunteer Incentive Program (VIP)
courses make it possible for more volunteers to receive better
training. Increased training demands are one of the major challenges
facing communities in retaining and recruiting volunteer firefighters,
so there is no doubt that VIP helps in this regard, but it is not a
specific retention and recruitment tool.
The Retention and Recruitment Guide for the Volunteer Emergency
Services identifies a wide range of recruitment and retention
challenges facing communities and recommends strategies for dealing
with each one. In the NVFC's last cooperative agreement with USFA there
was funding to deliver recruitment and retention training based on the
guide. Unfortunately, there was far more demand for training than funds
to provide it. Additional funding to provide recruitment and retention
training would be useful.
Question submitted by Representative Phil Gingrey
Q1. You made the suggestion in your testimony that USFA seek to link
the NFIRS database with the National Emergency Medical Services
Information System (NEMSIS), could you explain what the benefits of
such a linkage would be?
A1. The fire service provides 60 percent of emergency medical service
in this country. The National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS)
captures data from fire department responses, including fire service-
based EMS responses. The National Emergency Medical Services
Information System (NEMSIS) captures data from EMS responses, whether
or not they are fire service-based. The NVFC is not suggesting that
NFIRS and NEMSIS be combined into one single data collection system.
The NVFC does feel that it is important that USFA, which administers
NFIRS, and the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration
(NHTSA), which administers NEMSIS, should work together to ensure that
the data that is being collected is as accurate and useful as possible,
as well as to reduce potential duplication of activities.
Answers to Post-Hearing Questions
Responses by John R. Hall, Jr., Assistant Vice President, Fire Analysis
and Research, National Fire Protection Association
Questions submitted by Chairman David Wu
Q1. Are the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA), the National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST), and other fire research agencies,
sufficiently engaged in technology transfer activities that accelerate
the adoption of research development and findings into practice? Can
more be done to lower the cost of many fire detection and suppression
technologies?
A1. (a) The USFA and NIST pay considerable attention to effective,
multi-channel approaches to technology transfer. In my personal, recent
experience, I have observed or worked with both agencies as they (i)
provide presentations to diverse audiences of potential users, with
content tailored to the needs and interests of each audience; (ii)
provide easy Internet access to both findings and supporting data, in a
form that allows users to extend or review their analysis; (iii)
participate in national and international standards development
activities to convert new findings into standardized best practices;
(iv) set up as vendors of new software and new research at conferences
of kindred groups and potential users; (v) respond in detail to
questions from the field, providing extensive `service after the sale'
for research results; and (vi) provide articles, ready-to-use
presentations, training materials, and other user-friendly versions of
new findings, all provided without copyright limitations on potential
users. At the same time, both agencies are very aware of the limits of
law and propriety regarding the extension of their own activities into
the development of commercial products for sale.
(b) Most USFA and NIST research on fire detection and suppression
technologies has focused on potentials for improvement in performance
or reliability. I do not believe cost is considered a significant
obstacle to the use of fire detection technologies. Rather, public
expectations of very low cost has been an obstacle to the creation of
public demand for new features that would improve performance or
reliability. Cost has been perceived as an obstacle for use of fire
suppression technologies, notably fire sprinklers. Both USFA and NIST
have conducted research on low-cost alternatives, including single-
sprinkler concepts for the kitchen that will use piped water already
serving that room. I do not believe this approach can yet be considered
proven; it seems to reduce benefits as much or more than it reduces
costs, and it introduces potential modes of failure (i.e., fire
spreading to unsprinklered areas before sprinkler activation) that
raise concerns about its likely field effectiveness and reliability.
Nevertheless, it illustrates that both USFA and NIST are aware of
system cost as a barrier to wider use and have proven themselves
willing to pursue research on any promising approach that might lower
costs while preserving effectiveness.
Q2. You mention in your testimony that USFA has shown leadership in
setting priorities for fire research and in putting high quality
projects in motion. Given that USFA has limited funding for research,
are there broad areas of research that are neglected due to lack of
funding?
A2. In past years when funding levels were higher, the USFA was able to
pursue a substantial research agenda in such areas as human behavior
and fire safety educational methods, management methods and operational
rules for the fire service. In a number of areas (e.g., fire code
inspection effectiveness), we are still using results from USFA-funded
projects that are decades old. Also, USFA funding restrictions have
meant reduction, delay, or elimination of promising NIST projects on
fire service health and safety equipment performance and on active fire
protection systems. In all of these areas, the USFA--directly or
indirectly through partners like NIST--has produced a steady flow of
highly professional and highly useful work, but there is so much more
they could do with funding more in line with past years.
Q3. You say in your testimony that USFA can ``improve the climate in
which decisions about adoption [of voluntary codes and standards] are
made by forcefully and visibly supporting the voluntary consensus codes
and standards process and by putting. . . the weight of its own
reputation and leadership in support of compliance with national fire
service standards.'' How can USFA take a more visible role in this
process and what could they be doing specifically to encourage State
and local fire agencies to adopt these standards?
A3. The context for my testimony was my frustration that so many
otherwise knowledgeable members of the fire community believe that any
standard or code not issued by government officials must be an industry
standard and so must reflect the values and concerns of an affected
industry. NFPA's consensus process is designed to produce a true
consensus among all affected parties regarding desired levels of safety
and preferred methods to achieve such safety. The USFA can help by (i)
taking every opportunity to state its own belief in the value of true
consensus and the quality of codes and standards produced in accordance
with such principles, (ii) treating standards developing organizations
as the first and best place to target for technology transfer, and
(iii) recommending and if possible requiring compliance with applicable
consensus standards as a condition for participation in programs of the
USFA.
Q4. In your written testimony you note that rural populations have one
of the highest fire fatality rates in the U.S. Why is this? Have USFA
or other organizations developed programs to combat these high numbers?
A4. We have known of the unusually high fire fatality rates in U.S.
rural areas for at least three decades. Past analyses have noted that
rural communities and inner cities have the highest rates of poverty
and of other high-risk characteristics, as well as having the highest
fire fatality rates by size of community or neighborhood. NFPA recently
completed a major study, under a grant from the USFA, to develop a more
detailed understanding, not only of the overall rural fire problem, but
also of the differences between the fire problems of such distinct
areas as the rural Southeast, the Native American and migrant worker
areas of the rural West, and the rural Northeast and Midwest regions.
At this writing, NFPA and the USFA are completing the final edits to
the results of that project, and it should be posted on the USFA
website soon. It includes an identification of educational messaging
tailored to rural communities, a guide for educators tailored to the
needs of those working in rural communities, and an identification of
potential organizational partners who have shown interest in reducing
fire losses in rural communities or have demonstrated skill in
delivering effective public programs in such settings. Note also that
this is not the first study of the rural fire problem conducted by the
USFA or under its auspices.
Q5. Is USFA involved in any research to evaluate optimal fire and
emergency service asset management and distribution to achieve the
greatest level of community protection, especially in disaster
scenarios that strain resources?
A5. I believe this question is directed toward such program areas as
the design and implementation of written agreements and related plans
to permit large numbers of communities to pool their resources for
major incidents, conduct integrated incident command at such incidents,
and achieve smaller efficiencies through mutual aid and reciprocal
response based on distance to appropriate resources rather than
jurisdictional boundaries. The USFA has on occasion conducted research
to identify best practices among fire departments and to facilitate the
exchange of information on model programs or actual programs that have
worked well. Much of the detailed work in written agreements and plans,
though, is facilitated by the USFA's parent agency of FEMA or kindred
agencies like the U.S. Forest Service. I do not believe the USFA--or
any other entity--is attempting to define or identify optimal
arrangements. In my experience, optimization analysis on these subjects
tends to require so much simplification of the options and conditions
that no one quite trusts the answers. However, the spirit of
optimization can be and is achieved through the use of methods that
identify, implement and build on continuous improvements.
Questions submitted by Representative Phil Gingrey
Q1. You state in your testimony that needs assessments have not
documented a significant improvement in staffing or training needs,
stating that the amounts spent are simply nowhere near those necessary
to significantly impact these areas. Accepting this, has NFPA performed
any research to try to quantify the impact of training programs when
they are available?
A1. NFPA has concentrated on building quality and impact into the
programs from the beginning, through its suite of professional
qualifications standards. Most training programs fall under the
umbrella of an educational institution such as a State fire academy
with individual training results evaluated by a separate certification
body. These are proven methods to assure quality in a training program.
NFPA has not conducted longitudinal studies to determine how much skill
and knowledge is retained over the short- or long-term for different
training programs. This might be a useful area for a multi-year USFA-
funded project.
Q2. Has the NFPA needs assessment documented the use of advanced
medical training by firefighters outside of fire-based EMS? How often
are firefighters called on to perform medical interventions in the
absence of or prior to the arrival of EMS technicians? Has the USFA
assessed the degree of duplication between medical interventions by
firefighters versus those of fully trained EMS personnel?
A2. As of 2005, local fire departments responded to 23.3 million
emergency calls, and 14.4 million of those were for medical aid. The
second needs assessment found that in the same year, 67 percent of U.S.
fire departments provided emergency medical service, including all
departments serving communities of at least 250,000 population. The
percentage of departments offering the service has been steadily
increasing for many years, and both the number of EMS calls and the EMS
share of total calls have also been steadily increasing. For
departments that provide EMS service, 47 percent reported that all
their personnel providing the service had received formal training,
while 27 percent reported most personnel trained, 26 percent reported
some personnel trained, and zero percent reported no personnel trained.
As for certification, 98 percent of departments report at least some
personnel certified to at least the First Responder level, 87 percent
report at least some personnel certified to at least the Basic Life
Support level; 50 percent report at least some personnel certified to
at least the Advanced Life Support level; and 18 percent report at
least some personnel certified to at least the Paramedic level.
I am unaware of any database that would identify the involvement of
other parties in medical aid at incidents where fire departments have
provided service, let alone any data that would indicate the roles
played by each party or the sequence in which each party became
involved. I also am not aware of any data on how often more fully
trained or certified personnel might have been available to assist on
incidents in which fire departments provided service, how quickly those
other personnel might have been able to respond, or any other incident
characteristics that might indicate duplication. Any such data would
also have to relate the roles played by EMS providers to the roles
played by personnel in receiving hospitals or other medical facilities.
My sense, unsupported by any hard data, is that fire departments
have increased their provision of EMS service because in most
communities they are able to respond faster than anyone else, and my
understanding is that time is the most critical factor in successful
outcomes. I would not want to assume, especially in the absence of
data, that any fire department is delivering EMS in a community where
more trained or more certified personnel are available and able to
respond as quickly. But the direct answer to your question is that I do
not know of anyone, including the USFA, who has collected specific data
on these points.
Appendix 2:
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Additional Material for the Record
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