Editor:

There are a lot of misconceptions being used to support the negative press and comments being made about the Iron Mountain professional firefighters, and I want to clear them up.

The police officer shown in the front-page photo of the IMHS fire has not yet received the training that he needs in order to participate in 2-in/2-out operations involving the use of self-contained breathing apparatus. He only has Firefighter I certification. He is not trained in Firefighter II, ICS/IMS, HazMat Operations, and all of the required policies and procedures of the Iron Mountain Fire Department.

All fire departments in Michigan are required to meet the requirements of Part 74 of the MIOSHA rules.

Part 74 (MIOSHA) states that the employer shall provide training to an employee commensurate with the duties and functions that the employee is expected to perform. The training shall be provided before the employee is permitted to perform emergency operations.

Part 74 also states that the employer shall prepare and maintain a statement or written policy which establishes its basic organizational structure and which establishes the type, amount and frequency of training to be provided to fire service personnel. We have that in place, and only the full-time professional firefighters have completed the required training. There have been no changes to these documents to incorporate the “cross-trained police officers” with their lesser degree of training.

Part 74 states that the employee shall not use equipment and tools unless trained in their use. No patrolmen have received that training yet.

Part 74 states that the employer shall have a written respiratory protection program to address the safe use of respirators in dangerous atmospheres that may be encountered in emergency operations, in accordance with Part 451. Part 451 is where you’ll find the 2-in/ 2-out rule, as well as in Part 74. IMFD has the required written respiratory protection program, and no patrolmen have been trained on it yet.

Part 74 requires that we implement a nationally-recognized incident management system and personnel accountability system at each incident. It also requires that the employer provide initial training and annual refresher training in emergency operations and the incident management system. It further requires that the above-mentioned procedures shall be in accordance with the 2-in/2-out rules found in part 451. No patrolmen have received any of that training yet.

Part 74 and other applicable laws are available by clicking on the “Laws” link at www.imfd.org

There is an even greater reason why that police officer couldn’t be used for 2-in/2-out at that fire, and it’s contrary to what a school board official and the City Manager have said. The officer was not “fully-equipped”. He did not have an air mask to wear at the scene. He has not yet been issued an air mask, because he has not yet received the required training. There is no way he could have been placed inside that smoke-filled environment at any point in the operations. In fact, it could legally have been considered manslaughter for the fire officer in charge to allow him into that atmosphere without a mask.

The remaining professional firefighters of the Iron Mountain Fire Dept. trained earlier this year on the differences between our qualifications and those of the cross-trained patrolman, because for the first time in the 117-year history of the full-time fire department, we were being expected to find a way to utilize an individual with significantly less training than the department policy required. We know how we can and can’t utilize these patrolmen at emergency scenes, and it’s not what you’ve recently been hearing from others in positions of authority who should know better.

One more thing that I’d like you to remember: that police officer is the only one who has completed any fire training at all, and it’s purely coincidence that he was on duty that day. The fire could just as easily have occurred on his day off, and no one would be questioning as to why he wasn’t being used as part of a 2-in/2-out crew.

The above facts should put to rest a lot of the accusations flying around town. The full-time professional firefighters of the Iron Mountain Fire Department are committed to serving the residents of Iron Mountain in every way possible, most recently demostrated by our attempts to persuade the City Council to maintain minimum staffing for just such an incident, and also our requests for them to approve adding medical first response, ice rescue, and vehicle extrication to our duties in the past few years (all of which were denied).

Doug Johnson
Vice President, Iron Mountain Fire Fighters Association Local 554
Kingsford, MI