Kevin O’Connor — IAFF assistant to the general president for governmental, political and public affairs — testified before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials to encourage the reauthorization of a bill that includes funding for an annual grant allowing the IAFF to provide a train-the-trainer hazmat program. The subcommittee called for the information-gathering hearing because it is writing the legislation.

“Given the threat to individuals’ personal safety and economic wellbeing, it is incumbent that we ensure fire fighters nationwide receive hazardous materials training to provide a safe and effective response,” O’Connor testified.

Since 1990, the Department of Transportation has provided funding for a Hazardous Materials Emergency Preparedness (HMEP) grant to the IAFF to train instructors to deliver hazardous materials training to emergency responders nationwide. As a result, more than 3,000 instructors have received training, and those instructors have gone on to provide training to nearly 70,000 emergency responders.

While the train-the-trainer program has been an effective one, the IAFF is also encouraging the House Subcommittee to add language to this year’s legislation to allow for direct training to hazmat technicians.

Other suggested changes to the current legislation include requiring all training delivered to firefighters be at the operations level or greater and developing systems guaranteeing that incident commanders have access to important information, such as the status of hazardous substance shipping at all times.