Chicago Firefighters Bristle at New Procedure

Chicago’s Firefighters union is raising concerns about the department’s tactical guidelines set to take effect this week.
According to the new policy, the officer on smaller, four-man rigs responding to fires must become the incident commander, with two other firefighters performing specific duties.
Only when there are visible victims in imminent danger, or people on scene who tell firefighters there are people trapped inside, will CFD be able to break protocol and enter with more than one firefighter on arrival.
An OSHA probe into an August 2023 fire that resulted in a firefighter’s death when trapped in a basement during a fire, resulted in the agency dictating changes in procedure.
The City of Chicago asked for an extension on this policy last month, but was denied by OSHA. The Federal department has fined the city $10,000 a day going back to May 12, and will continue fining the city $10,000 until the new guidelines take effect.
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As OSHA enters the second week of its two-week public hearing to determine the standard for federal heat protections, or if there should be any such rule, the Small Business Administration and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have stepped up their criticism as burdensome to entrepreneurs because of its “one-size-fits-all approach,” Inc. reported.
“Consider airline baggage handlers and the impact mandatory 15-minute breaks would have on moving passenger luggage in terminals or loading bags onto connecting flights or loading cargo onto planes with tight schedules,” Marc Freedman, vice president of workplace policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said in his testimony.
The SBA’s Office of Advocacy “is concerned that the proposed rule is inflexible, overly prescriptive, and fails to account for sector-specific and regional differences,” the SBA’s deputy chief counsel, Chip Bishop III and assistant chief counsel, Bruce Lundegren, wrote in their testimony.
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