Category: In The News

Jan. 24, 2023 People joining the virtual event at 2 p.m. Wednesday will have the opportunity to ask questions.

Source Firehouse.com News

While January has been Firefighter Cancer Awareness Month, the effort to educate firefighters about the deadly disease and how they can minimize the risk is ongoing. 

The National Volunteer Fire Council is hosting a panel discussion at 2 p.m. Wednesday with subject matter experts to provide an update on the issues.

People can register for the Zoom call or it will be streamed live on the NVFC Facebook Page.

Recent statistics show cancer is the leading cause of deaths of firefighters.

Among those participating on the panel include Brian McQueen, NVFC board member and co-author of the Lavender Ribbon Report; Joe Schumacher, chief operations officer of the Firefighter Cancer Support Network; Rick Markley, former editor-in-chief of FireRescue1 and advocate for the National Firefighter Registry; and Racquel Cesnalis, deputy director of the Health, Safety & Medicine Division of the International Association of Fire Fighters.

“We are hoping people will actively participate, and ask questions,” said Kimberly Quiros, NVFC chief of communications.

Information about the CDC’s new National Firefighter Registry program will be shared.

“We need volunteers to register so we can truly understand the depth of the problem,” she said.

In addition to information about the types of cancers that firefighters often face, the panelists will offer actions that people and departments can take to reduce the risks.

Jan. 24, 2023 A new federal report found that remote locations have limited access to services, like schools or grocery stores, as well as internet connectivity.

By Kate Heston Source Daily Inter Lake, Kalispell, Mont. (TNS) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Jan. 24—U.S. Sen. Steve Daines last week called on the Biden administration to address housing challenges for wildland firefighters.

Daines — along with a bipartisan group of colleagues from California, Idaho, Colorado and Oregon — is asking for information on the availability and cost of federal housing for firefighters in the hopes of bolstering the ranks of wildland crews. Housing can act as a barrier to recruiting and retaining firefighters, particularly in remote areas where private options are limited, the group argued.

“Federal wildland firefighters have a difficult and dangerous job, and it is the federal government’s responsibility to support them in this work. We look forward to discussing these issues in detail and working with you to address the barriers to firefighter recruitment and retention,” the senators said in the press release.

The effort comes on the heels of a report published by the Government Accountability Office in November 2022. Among other challenges to federal wildland firefighter retention and recruitment, the report zeroed in on housing problems. According to the report, “many wildland firefighter duty stations are in areas that are remote or expensive, or both …”

The report found that remote locations come with other challenges, including limited access to services, like schools or grocery stores as well as internet connectivity.

The primary obstacle to recruitment and retention, according to the report, was compensation.

“Low pay was the most commonly cited barrier to recruiting and retaining federal wildland firefighters,” the report read. “Officials … also noted that the pay does not reflect the risk or physical demands of the work. Moreover, officials and stakeholders said that in some cases, firefighters can earn more at nonfederal firefighting entities or for less dangerous work in other fields, such as food service.”

In a separate letter to the director of the Office of Management and Budget, the senators requested a briefing on pricing guidelines for federal housing as they relate to federal wildland firefighters.

In recent years, the U.S. Forest Service and Department of Interior have struggled with staffing shortages amid increasingly destructive and widespread wildfire seasons. In July 2022, for example, Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Alex Padilla, both Democrats, beseeched the Biden administration to bolster the ranks of California-based firefighters. In a letter, they cited a shortage of 1,200 firefighters nationally as the 2022 wildfire season got underway.

Feinstein and Padilla both joined with Daines, a Republican, on the push to address housing for wildland firefighters.

According to the U.S. Forest Service’s website, hiring for the 2023 wildland fire seasons began in September 2022. The Northern region, which includes the Flathead National Forest, hopes to fill 150 to 200 permanent positions in northern Idaho, Montana and North Dakota. Specialized positions include dispatch, engine crews, smokejumpers and more.

Reporter Kate Heston can be reached at [email protected].

Jan. 24, 2023 Officials say the four companies are Title 19 fire districts, meaning they are subject to control of Muskogee County.

By Cathy Spaulding Source Muskogee Phoenix, Okla. (TNS) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Jan. 24—Four Muskogee County volunteer fire departments must surrender all funds and submit an inventory of county-purchased equipment to county officials within 30 days, plus undergo a state audit, under a resolution passed by the Muskogee County Board of Commissioners.

The four departments — Brushy Mountain, Buckhorn, Keefeton and Mountain View — are listed as Title 19 fire districts, meaning they are outgrowths of the county governme and subject to control of the county, said John Tyler Hammons, who provides legal counsel for the county. Hammons said some fire departments were not in full compliance with Title 19 statutes.

Monday’s resolution requires the following:

—Designate Emergency Management Director Jeff Smith as requisitioning officer of all purchase orders for all Title 19 fire departments until further notice.

—Appoint a three-member selection committee, selected by the commissioners, to nominate individuals to serve on the boards of various Title 19 fire departments within 30 days.

—Require all Title 19 fire departments in the county to file an inventory of all county-purchase equipment within 30 days.

—Require all Title 19 fire departments to surrender all funds in their possession to the county treasurer within 30 days.

—Request the State Fire Pension System to conduct a membership audit of all Title 19 fire departments.

—Request State Auditor to audit all county Title 19 fire departments.

Commissioners passed the resolution Monday with no discussion.

Mountain View Fire Chief Josh Wood and Brushy Mountain Fire Chief Michael Dugan said they were not aware of the decision and would not comment until they had information.

Other fire chiefs did not seem happy.

“What are they trying to do, steal our money,” Keefeton Fire Chief Speck Plunkett said.

Monday morning, Plunkett said he had not heard about the decision and had “no clue what they’re trying to do.”

“It sounds to me like they’re trying to take away the money that the public gives each fire department,” he said. “We have the sales tax money the public voted on to give us, and to give each department that they specified each department to get.”

Plunkett said that, as a Title 19 fire department, Keefeton governs itself.

“The state of Oklahoma recognizes that, and I guess the county commissioners don’t because they don’t know about a Title 19,” he said. “It sounds to me like the county commissioners don’t want to work with the fire departments.”

Buckhorn Fire Chief Clayton Webb said the county needs to put the firefighters on the county payroll.

“We’re not just going to fight and let them spend our money for us. That’s not going to happen,” Webb said. “Either they’re going to put us on the payroll, or they’re going to get out of our business.”

Hammons said Title 19 fire departments are government agencies and an outgrowth of the county government.

“They have a board approved by the county commissioners, they have to have a budget filed at the county clerk, follow county purchasing procedures, bank with the county treasurer,” he said. “Those four are subject to county control over their purchase orders, they have to bank with the county treasurer, follow county purchasing policies and are subject to the Oklahoma Open Meeting and Open Records acts.”

Hammons said Mountain View Fire Department is partly in compliance and following the rules. The other three are not in compliance.

Commission Chairman Kenny Payne explained his motivation for recommending the resolution.

“These things have been brought to our attention now as something that didn’t even start in this room or in this board, but it has been brought to our attention,” Payne said. “There have been assertions made that there are things going on that aren’t legal. In my way of thinking, for me just to overlook that and go on makes me just as complicit as anyone else, and I don’t think I’m in a position to do that.”

Webb said the issue could be traced to allegations about delinquent payments to the Muskogee County 911 Center.

“We would not pay and sign the Mickey Mouse contract, and my taxpayers down here did not vote to support a failing agency, the 911,” Webb said. “But the county commissioners, which should be supporting them, passed the buck off to the fire departments to support them, so it’s wrong everything they’re doing.”

The issue stems from a 2022 dispute on wording of a contract between the fire departments and Muskogee City/County Enhanced 911 Trust Authority. The dispute centered on who was responsible for shortfalls in income. The original contract said that any shortfalls were to by made up by the City of Muskogee and Muskogee County. Plunkett said the authority was trying to pass responsibility to the various departments.

Webb said he sent information about Monday’s resolution to the Oklahoma attorney general’s office this morning.

“We’re not sitting still, we’re going to fight this tooth and nail,” he said.