Senate Bill No. 555
(By Senators Schoonover, Mitchell and Hunter)
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[Introduced February 17, 1999; referred to the Committee on the
Judiciary; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend article fifteen, chapter eight of the code of
West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated section
ten-b, relating to imposing mandatory safety procedures for
firefighters in situations deemed immediately dangerous to
life or health.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article fifteen, chapter eight of the code of West
Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be
amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section ten- b, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 15. FIRE FIGHTING; FIRE COMPANIES AND DEPARTMENTS; CIVIL
SERVICE FOR PAID FIRE DEPARTMENTS.
§8-15-10b. Mandatory safety procedures for situations deemed immediately dangerous to life or health.
(a) Procedures for IDLH (situations immediately dangerous
to life or health).
In all IDLH atmospheres, the employers shall ensure that:
(1) One employee or, when needed, more than one employee, is
located outside the IDLH atmosphere;
(2) Visual, voice or signal line communication is maintained
between the employee or employees in the IDLH atmosphere and the
employee or employees located outside the IDLH atmosphere;
(3) The employee or employees located outside the IDLH
atmosphere are trained and equipped to provide effective
emergency rescue;
(4) The employer, or designee authorized by the employer, is
notified before the employee or employees located outside the
IDLH atmosphere enter the IDLH atmosphere to provide emergency
rescue;
(5) The employer, or designee authorized to do so by the
employer, once notified, provides necessary assistance
appropriate to the situation;
(6) An employee or employees located outside the IDLH
atmospheres are equipped with:
(A) Pressure demand or other positive pressure SCBAs
(self-contained breathing apparatus), or a pressure demand or other pressure-supplied air respirator with auxiliary SCBA; and
either:
(i) Appropriate retrieval equipment for removing the
employee or employees who enter these hazardous atmospheres where
retrieval equipment would contribute to the rescue of the
employee or employees and would not increase the overall risk
resulting from entry; or
(ii) Equivalent means for rescue where retrieval equipment
is not required or not available.
(b) Procedures for interior structural fire fighting.
In addition to the requirements set forth under subsection
(a) above, when the fire is located in the interior of a
structure, the employer shall ensure that:
(1) At least two employees enter the IDLH atmosphere and
remain in visual or voice contact with one another at all times;
(2) At least two employees are located outside the IDLH
atmosphere; and
(3) All employees engaged in the interior structural fire
fighting use SCBAs.
(c) Nothing in this section is meant to preclude either of
the following occurrences:
(1) One of the two individuals located outside the IDLH
atmosphere may be assigned to an additional role, such as
incident commander in charge or the emergence or safety officer, so long as this individual is able to perform assistance or
rescue activities without jeopardizing the safety or health of
any fire fighter working at the incident; and
(2) Fire fighters may perform emergency rescue activities
before an entire team has assembled.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to impose mandatory
safety procedures for fire fighters in situations deemed
immediately dangerous to life or health. These procedures follow
the recently revised OSHA standards regarding respiratory
protection, known in the fire fighting industry as the "two- in/two-out" provision.
§15-8-10b is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.
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