Victory is Ours on NFPA 1710
From the May-June 2001 issue of the International Fire Fighter

A new day has dawned for the IAFF and the nation's professional fire service.

We have succeeded in passing the NFPA 1710 standard on fire department operations and deployment. We have won a standard of historic proportions that will change the face of the fire service - for the better - for decades to come.

It is a standard that calls for minimum four-fire fighter staffing, and five or six person staffing in high-density areas. It is a standard that calls for realistic and rapid response times for first due companies and full alarm assignments.

And it is a standard that requires two paramedics to respond on all ALS calls.

NFPA 1710 is a lengthy document that, for the first time, provides a comprehensive blueprint for fire departments to follow. It establishes a yardstick in black and white to measure the performance and effectiveness of a fire department. It will help your departments provide the best possible fire and emergency protection to the citizens you serve - and it will make the job safer for you and your IAFF brothers and sisters across our two nations.

As I write this column - on the day after the May 16 vote on 1710 at the NFPA Meeting in Anaheim, California - my heart and soul are filled with pride over the dedication and commitment that was required of so many members of this great Union to win this significant victory.

It took the IAFF six years to guide the 1710 standard through the long and torturous NFPA committee process, and get it to the floor in Anaheim. IAFF members labored long hours on the committee, our IAFF staff worked to iron out the details of 1710, and thousands of you filed comments in a massive outpouring of support of the standard with NFPA.

Last September, with the full support of the IAFF Executive Board and Secretary-Treasurer Vinnie Bollon, this administration put forth a comprehensive strategy and plan to pass 1710. We looked at every angle and allocated the necessary resources to withstand all assaults from those who opposed a strong fire service standard.

We traveled throughout the West holding special meetings to encourage our Union leaders and members to come to Anaheim to vote for 1710, and I took every opportunity possible to speak at IAFF conventions and other IAFF meetings to spread the word.

I forged alliances with ICHIEFS President Mike Brown, who delivered 110 percent on his commitment to the IAFF, as well as the State Fire Marshals and other progressive organizations. I addressed the International Association of Fire Chiefs conference, the Metro Chiefs, the Fire Department Instructors Conference, and other fire service venues to win support for our position on 1710.

I won the support of the AFL-CIO and reached out to the general presidents of other International unions, including the Electrical Workers, the Plumbers, and the Airline Pilots, to secure the votes of their delegates who were at the NFPA Meeting to approve codes related to their professions. Even the major fire service publications and columnists, including the NFPA Journal, supported our position in favor of the standard.

And we didn't hesitate to confront those organizations that opposed us, like the International City and County Management Association (ICMA), the League of Cities, and the Conference of Mayors, who put intense pressure on individual fire chiefs to vote against the standard and deny leave to our members who were coming to Anaheim.

These municipal organizations cried that all we wanted to do was create "jobs" - and I responded that they were damn right NFPA 1710 is about jobs. It is about jobs to provide adequate staffing in counties, cities, and towns where fire fighters are forced to work with only three, or even two on a rig. It is about jobs to make fire departments more efficient and reduce unnecessary fire fighter injuries and deaths due to inadequate staffing.

We left no stone unturned in our mission, but in the end, we succeeded because our Union, at the International, state and provincial, and local levels, operated as one with a single, unassailable goal - the passage of 1710.

It was a sight to behold as more than 2,600 of our IAFF brothers and sisters, from every corner of our two nations, filed onto the floor of the NFPA meeting for the debate and vote on 1710.

Our strategy and planning paid off. We passed NFPA 1710 by an overwhelming margin and, in doing so, we also participated in the largest gathering of IAFF members in our Union's 84-year history. The number of IAFF members in attendance at the NFPA meeting was larger than any other previous IAFF event or meeting, including our International conventions.

But our work is far from over. NFPA 1710 is a tool to help you use political action, public relations, and other resources to convince the elected decision-makers in your communities to adopt the standard. The implementation of NFPA 1710 will be a multi-year process for the IAFF and our affiliates as we strive to make every professional fire department measure up to the standard.

Just as we did with the OSHA 2-in/2-out fire fighter safety standard, we will work in tandem with ICHIEFS to educate your elected officials and local citizens about the benefits of 1710. As for those fire chiefs who voted against 1710 because they were shortsighted or because they were forced to oppose it, we must also work with them to implement the standard in their communities now that the battle is over.

This is not the time to boast or gloat, and it is not the time to criticize or condemn those who opposed 1710. It is the time to forge ahead and work with everyone who will work with us to implement it.

We have provided a plan for the future of our profession and the fire service that will save the lives of civilians and our brothers and sisters now and for generations to come.

Every IAFF member deserves to be as proud as I am about the passage of NFPA 1710 because we achieved a goal that many thought was impossible.

We won a tremendous victory on 1710 because we did our homework, because we put together and implemented a strategic plan that seriously outflanked our opponents - and because we were right.

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