Reprinted from the FireRescue1 Editorial, originaly published on June 24, 2008

Editor's note: Fully implementing NFPA 1500, especially sections addressing PPE, is (was) a major focus of the 2008 Fire/EMS Safety, Health and Survival Week. In the following article, FireRescue1 takes a look at the origins of the Standard.

An Indianapolis firefighter uses full PPE while tackling a car fire.  (picture)

But its passage to becoming a Standard was far from easy.

"There were some peple out there who thought it was rediculous, said Bruce Teele, senior firesafety specialist at the NFPA. 'They said, "We can't use this, we all have our own uniques issues and every fire is different."

A draft version of the Standard received more than 15,000 comments when it was first presented for public consultaion in the early 1980s.

Many were unfavorable, with some departmets mounting large-scale campaigns against its introduction. There wasone fire department that had every member and all of their wives submit comments," Teele said. "They even submitted one from thei firehouse dog, and got an imprint of its paw to sign it."

The Standard addressed for the first time such issues as health and safety programs, training requirements, operational requirements of vehicles and protective clothing requirements.

But many felt the guidelines were too rigid and would affect a firefighter's ability to work successfully at he scene of a fire.

We even had  lot of chiefs, officers and battalion chiefs against it, "Teele said. "The were saying we were out of our minds, that they'd never be able to save another life with this and that they just couldn't follow it."

This attitude meant the NFPA stering committee behind the Standard faced a tough task bringing it to fruition.

LODD reports

NFPA 1500 originated in the late 1970s with the advent of detailed reporting of line-of-duty deaths. This, coupled with growing concern at firefighter injuries and occupational diseases, led to a small group coming together to look at what could be done.

Among those health and safety pioneere were now-retired Phoenix Fire Chief Alan Brunacini and Teele.

We had noticed a lot of the deaths and injuries were preventable, almost like low-hanging fruit," Teele said. 'It wasn't the big catastrophic events; it was more the things like excessive speed when responding to fires, inadequate training of appratus operators.

"There also seemed to be a big, barren wasteland of knowledge of what incident command needed to embrace."

"We all agreed that we could and should," Teele said. 'Our view was firefighters were dying over and over again for the same reasons and thefire service wasn't learning from it."

The group went on to put togeher an outline plan, which was presented tothe NFPA Standards Council. Members of the council approved it and a committee was subsequently created in 1984 to work on the Standard.

And, dispite opposition from some quarters, the first edition of the Standard was published in 1987.

'More awareness' More than 20 years later, Teele said, NFPA 1500 is having an effect. 'They're starting to come around tothe way of thinking, 'Why should we get injured if there are ways too prevent it?" Younger firefighters, who have grown up withthe Standard, are also having an impact, according to Teele. "I think a lot of them have the attitude of 'I like the job, I like what I do but I don't want to die doing it - I want to live, I want to be around for my family,'"he said.

Maybe there are still some people who looked back on the 'good old days' of the '60s and early '70s, but they're being outnumbered by the new people coming through, who have the attitude of, 'Why wouldn't you wear the appropriate PPE?" 

/article end/

In recent days we have lost two of the most influencial people ever known to the modern-day fire service in Alan Brunacini and Bruce Teele. RIP Brother Brunacini and Brother Teele. Your work carries on and continues to save hundreds of emergency responder's lives with each passing year. NR