A newly released white paper from the Urban Fire Forum finds that budget-cut management, rising call volumes, personnel and equipment shortages, security issues, and the overall expectation to do more with less have left individuals, fire departments and communities vulnerable.

The “Fire Service Deployment: Assessing Community Vulnerability” report includes an analysis from members of the forum, which consists of metropolitan fire department chiefs and fire-service representatives. The white paper’s data and analysis are based on government regulations and several industry reports and standards, such as NFPA 1710 and the Commission on Fire Accreditation International Standards of Response Coverage, said Ned Pettus Jr., president of the Metropolitan Fire Chiefs Association and chief of the Columbus (Ohio) Fire Department.

“As fire chiefs, our highest priority is life-safety of citizens and firefighters and [protection of] property,” Pettus said. “In this report, we included the best standards that exist [in the industry], such as staffing and response times, that can protect firefighters at an incident and the public’s lives and property.”

There’s no doubt that in many U.S. communities, the economic recession has forced fire chiefs to cut fire-department resources faster than fire-service leaders can evaluate the cuts’ impacts, Pettus said. At the same time, chiefs must meet the demand of local and federal officials who have increased their expectations of the fire service from just firefighting duties to emergency medical services, natural-disaster response, hazmat mitigation and response, technical rescue and terrorism response, he said.

Carrying a heavy load without the financial support of government puts citizens and firefighters at risk, Pettus said. To help make this case to government officials, the white paper puts the issues of response and life-safety in scientific terms using the aforementioned industry standards.

“This report encourages officials to take a scientific approach and consider the life-safety of firefighters and first responders, the life-safety of the public, and the environment and property that is at risk as a result of budget cuts,” he said.

In addition, the white paper found that fire chiefs often are faced with policies created by government officials who must balance community service expectations with finite budgetary resources, while at the same time, making such decisions without a true technical foundation to evaluate the impact on the safety of the public and on firefighters. In truth, such cuts can leave a community’s fire department without sufficient resources to respond to emergency calls safely and effectively, Pettus said.

In response to the findings, the white paper recommends a framework for decision-making to make sure that the public and firefighters are protected. For example, it recommends a standard policy that for 90% of all incidents, the first-due unit shall arrive on scene within a 4-minute travel time with the first-due unit capable of advancing the first line for fire suppression, starting rescue or providing basic life support. It also recommends a two-in, two-out staffing policy to ensure firefighter safety.

“With these recommendations in the white paper, fire chiefs can help educate officials about the resources needed to serve the public,” Pettus said.