An extensive series of safety standards being proposed by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration is leading to howls of disapproval from rural fire departments, whose leaders are warning there’s no way they can implement the changes given the staffing and financial constraints their small departments face.

However well intended, the proposed regulations will cripple their departments, a handful of fire chiefs interviewed for this story said.

“Most of what is being proposed is probably not unreasonable, but it’s like hitting a small town with a 10-pound beam when a twig might be more appropriate,” said Lawrence Holmberg, emergency management director for the towns of Chesterfield and Goshen.

Holmberg said he has been urging town officials to “pay attention to what is being proposed, because it will have serious financial implications to the town.”

OSHA has spent the last decade looking at ways fire departments can increase firefighter safety and reduce the number of workplace fatalities and injuries among first responders. In February, the agency put forth its proposed Emergency Response Standard, which would set strict regulations for training, equipment testing and replacement, and administrative policies.

Public comment on the proposed changes ended July 22, and OSHA has announced an informal public hearing to begin on Nov. 12 to gather more feedback.

While safety is the intent behind the policies, local fire chiefs in rural areas say the changes will be too expensive for small departments already struggling to stay afloat.

“Half of the fire departments in the U.S. are in towns less than 2,500 people,” said Joseph Maruca, a retired West Barnstable fire chief and board member of the national Volunteer Fire Council. “They are limited in their administrative capabilities. These regulations would require a full-time staff.”

Maruca notes that departments in the smaller towns in western Massachusetts’ four counties have annual budgets of around $50,000. “It’s going to be overwhelming in the sense of people and scale,” he said.

Maruca and many rural fire chiefs find that the proposed regulations are a “one-size-fits-all” solution to fire department occupational hazards, that in many ways go “way beyond the injury level that we’re seeing in these small towns.”

For years departments have been operating under “best practices,” allowing chiefs to support their staff the best they can with their limited resources. Orange Fire Chief James Young said recruits are given medical exams when they are hired, which has been expensive enough, but OSHA’s requirement that staff receive exams twice a year will put costs through the roof.

Westhampton Fire Chief David Antosz said that when government regulations “come down like this,” they often forget about small, rural, volunteer-run fire departments.

“It’s already getting harder and harder for us to recruit younger firefighters with all the training that’s required and have them available when calls come in … it’s gonna get harder and harder the more they add to that,” Antosz said.

Antosz’s department operates on a yearly budget of about $42,000 that is already stretched thin by equipment maintenance and gear replacements. The proposed regulations would require those upgrades to occur even more frequently.

Additionally, Antosz said that as the chief of a volunteer-run department, he is responsible for the majority of administrative work, which would increase drastically under the new regulations.

Buried in paperwork

Additional new regulations will require weekly inspections of apparatus by certified technicians, regular replacement of personal protection equipment and trucks, regular mandated training and annual skill tests for firefighters, and a mountain of administrative tasks that will leave chiefs buried in paperwork.

“These regulations are good and well intended, but the issue is it’s going to be expensive to implement and strain our already limited budgets,” said Young. “We struggle to find capital to purchase the equipment we need now.”

Currently, the Orange Fire Department replaces protective gear for firefighters every 10 years at a cost of $5,000 per set.

“As difficult as it is to replace gear every 10 years, they now want to cut the life of protective equipment in half and double our costs,” Young said.

The Orange department operates with a budget of about $1.7 million, but the majority of that goes to paying wages for the department’s 24 members. Once wages are paid, the department has about $258,000 left for other expenses. With new firetrucks in the range of $1 million, Young said the more frequent replacement of gear is unfeasible.

In a 36-page letter to OSHA, the Massachusetts Call/Volunteer Firefighters Association said the average Massachusetts fire department operates with a small volunteer force and a budget of just $74,932, and does not have the resources to implement the proposed changes.

“These departments struggle to pay for fuel, maintain their trucks and building, and purchase basic replacement gear and supplies,” the letter said.

Departments that are staffed by volunteers will face even more challenges as OSHA is proposing a plethora of administrative tasks, including more regular inspections of apparatus, training and skill exams for staff, the creation and regular review of safety plans, and more.

“All of my people have full-time jobs,” said Nicholas Anzuoni, chief of the Colrain and Heath fire departments. “We already train every week … we don’t have time to do any more.”

Anzuoni said a regional fire department might have the time and resources to handle the paperwork, but at this point in time it would be impossible for individual departments to implement all of OSHA’s changes in accordance with the proposed timeline.

“If they said we have to do all of this tomorrow we won’t be able to,” Anzuoni said. “I don’t think the departments can ask ... for more money. I don’t know how to make this work.”

Anzouni said Colrain is already struggling to find the funding for a new fire truck, estimated to cost between $850,000-$950,000. With a budget of $143,330 this year, and an approved budget of $151,549 for next year, Anzouni said there is not enough left to comply with the new regulations.

The chiefs said they are all for improving safety for their staff, but OSHA needs to work with them to make implementation more feasible.

“We’re optimistic that OSHA will make the changes a little more realistic,” Shelburne Fire District Chief John Taylor said. “Anything is achievable with enough money, but we don’t have that kind of money. I don’t think the taxpayers will support or can support all of these expensive changes, especially in small rural towns.”

Whately Fire Chief JP Kennedy agrees.

“It would be extremely difficult for small municipalities to comply both financially and time-wise,” he said.

Chiefs added that OSHA needs to keep in mind that firefighting is a dangerous profession, and no amount of money will make the work completely safe.

“It’s a hazardous job. You can do everything you can to mitigate risks, but you’re never going to get rid of 100% of the risks,” Anzouni said.

The Emergency Response Standard is still just a proposed list of changes. Fire chiefs said OSHA is working to finalize the list and when the changes will be implemented, and the chiefs are waiting to see how the new standard will hit their departments and their budgets.

“We’ll do our best to comply with what comes our way,” said Antosz. “But at the end of the day, we can only do what we can.”

Madison Schofield can be reached at mschofield@recorder.com. Alexa Lewis can be reached at alewis@gazettenet.com.