Fire Service Regulations

[Munir Junker]

Thereis a list of fire safety regulations made by the National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA) that exist to maintain safe conditions in the workplace. These regulations make a point that prevention is the first step against accidents that may involve fires. If every regulation is upheld there is a significant decrease in risk of workplace accidents since they cover maintenance, design, installation, and general guidance on fire safety. The following below are a few examples of fire safety regulations.

NFPA 30: This standard covers the hazards involved with handling combustible and flammable liquids. It provides required guidance on the safe storage, handling, and use of these kinds of materials. There are four ways to help those involved in storing these chemicals:

NFPA 70: This standard is interchangeable with NEC (National Electrical Code). It has been adopted by all 50 states in some capacity to detail the requirements for designing and installing electrical systems. It covers electrical wiring, overcurrent protection, grounding, and the installation of equipment. Local building codes have NFPA 70 included in them most of the time; these are non-negotiable regulations.

NFPA 70B: This is a continuation of NFPA 70 that discusses the proper preventative maintenance for equipment, communication systems, and other kinds of machinery used in industrial, commercial, residential, and institutional buildings.

NFPA 70E: This is the third standard that completes the overarching NFPA standards regarding the installation, maintenance, and safety of electrical equipment. NFPA 70E takes care of employees by providing them with the best practices to keep them safe on the job. These are not an option to follow. In fact, there are only a few entities that are exempt from NFPA 70E regulations and those are:

NFPA 72: This specific regulation determines the application, installation, performance, location, maintenance, and testing of fire alarm systems. Fire alarms are an important part of NFPA regulations as they do exactly what their name says; they alert those in the workplace that something has gone wrong and action needs to be taken to get away as well as to call emergency responders.

Recreational fires are permitted only at the sites below and according to the regulations on this page. In addition to the universal fire regulations, and Spare the Air Days, more site-specific rules and regulations:

When the Bay Area Air Quality Management District declares a Spare the Air day, NO campfires, beach fires, or outdoor grills are allowed at Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Your compliance reduces pollution and improves air quality.

The interconnection between the fire service and the law has intrigued me for as long as I can remember. The two are so intertwined that listing all of the laws that have an impact on the fire service is a challenge, let alone identifying those that are the most important.

We can start with a list of all of the laws that impact the fire service (see table). Some are specific laws, such as the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Others could more rightly be characterized as subject matter areas, such as civil service laws.

Few professions are as dangerous as firefighting, and none of those (commercial fishing, logging and mining) has advanced life support standing by every time that an individual goes to work. Unlike commercial fishing, logging and mining, our EMS systems turn what could be fatal firefighting injuries into survivable events.

The connection between the fire service and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is a bit strange. Federal OSHA does not have jurisdiction over state and municipal firefighters. States may choose to require compliance with federal OSHA standards. Even then, it is the state, not federal OSHA, that bears responsibility for enforcing the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 requirements for public employees. Nevertheless, OSHA plays an important role in setting minimum health and safety standards for firefighters.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination in employment on the basis of race, national origin, gender and religion. It has had a major impact on hiring and promotions within the fire service. Many departments have been under court imposed/approved hiring quotas for decades. In some departments, promotions have been blocked for years as courts wrestle with Title VII cases. Title VII also is the tool of choice for attorneys who represent individual firefighters who are the victims of unlawful discrimination.

It is difficult to imagine an occupation for which physical abilities are more important than firefighting. The enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990 caused fire departments to reevaluate physical and mental requirements to ensure that they do not unlawfully discriminate against those who have a disability, while simultaneously ensuring that personnel can perform the essential functions of the job. The ability of incumbent firefighters to continue to do the job is fertile ground for ADA lawsuits.

CURT VARONE has more than 40 years of experience in the fire service, including 29 years as a career firefighter with Providence, RI, retiring as a deputy assistant chief (shift commander). He is a practicing attorney who is licensed in Maine and Rhode Island and served as the director of the Public Fire Protection Division at the NFPA. Varone is the author of two books, "Legal Considerations for Fire and Emergency Services" and "Fire Officer's Legal Handbook," and remains active as a deputy chief in Exeter, RI.

In October 2007, devastating wildfires driven by strong Santa Ana winds burned hundreds of square miles in Southern California. Several of the worst wildfires were reportedly ignited by overhead utility power lines and aerial communication facilities near power lines. In response to these wildfires, we created Rulemaking (R.) 08-11-005 to consider and adopt regulations to protect the public from potential fire hazards associated with overhead powerline facilities and nearby aerial communication facilities.

The scope and schedule for R.15-05-006 was divided into two parallel tracks. One track focused on the development and adoption of a statewide fire-threat map. The second track focused on the identification, evaluation, and adoption of fire-safety regulations in the HFTD.

Under the requirements of D.17-01-009, the Safety and Enforcement Division (SED) makes available the following maps that together make up the HFTD, which will direct future utility and communication infrastructure provider fire-safety activities in California. [Please use Internet Explorer or compatible browser to open files.]

The fire-safety regulations below require a map to define "high fire-threat areas" where these regulations apply. The interim maps adopted in R.08-11-005 consisted of these three fire-threat maps below:

In 2012, we created a statewide map designed specifically to show areas where there is an increased risk for utility associated wildfires. The CPUC Fire-Threat Map, started in R.08-11-005 and continued in R.15-05-006.

We used a multistep process to develop the statewide CPUC Fire-Threat Map. The first step was to develop Fire Map 1 (FM 1), an agnostic map that shows California areas where there is a higher risk for the ignition and rapid spread of powerline fires due to strong winds, abundant dry vegetation, and other environmental conditions. These are the environmental conditions associated with the catastrophic powerline fires that burned 334 square miles of Southern California in October 2007. FM 1 was developed by CAL FIRE and adopted by us in Decision 16-05-036.

The main people handling the development of the CPUC Fire-Threat Map was a group of utility mapping experts known as the Peer Development Panel (PDP), with oversight from a team of independent experts known as the Independent Review Team (IRT). The members of the IRT were selected by CAL FIRE and CAL FIRE served as the Chair of the IRT. The development of CPUC Fire-Threat Map includes input from many stakeholders, including investor-owned and publicly owned electric utilities, communications infrastructure providers, public interest groups, and local public safety agencies.

You can access the GIS web viewer here: and click on the magnifying lens icon in the upper right corner to show the search bar. From there you can enter addresses and zoom in to a fairly fine scale with street level detail.

In D.17-01-009, as changed by D.17-06-024, we adopted a work plan for the development and adoption of the CPUC Fire-Threat Map, which is one part of the HFTD. Following these decisions, the HFTD is made up of two maps:

The Tree Mortality HHZ Map is an off-the-shelf map. Tier 1 HHZs are zones near communities, roads, and utility lines, and are a direct threat to public safety. Tier 2 fire-threat areas outline areas where there is a higher risk (including likelihood and potential impacts on people and property) from utility related wildfires. Tier 3 fire-threat areas outline areas where there is an extreme risk (including likelihood and potential impacts on people and property) from utility related wildfires.

The fire-safety regulations described below apply only to areas designated as "high fire-threat areas" following the adopted interim maps. The HFTD is intended to represent an area based, in part, upon a mapping product (i.e. CPUC Fire-Threat Map) developed specifically for the purpose of scoping utility regulations.

The scope of R.15-05-006 included the identification, evaluation, and adoption of more fire-safety regulations for the HFTD. A series of public workshops was held by a group known as the Fire Safety Technical Panel (FSTP). The panel was chaired by the Safety and Enforcement Division and Southern California Edison Company. On July 10, 2017, the FSTP filed a Workshop Report that had 23 proposed fire-safety regulations and 8 alternatives. Interested parties filed opening comments on July 31, 2017, and reply comments on August 11, 2017. On December 21, 2017, we issued D.17-12-024, adopting new fire-safety regulations in the HFTD.

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