I-9 - NFPA Standards - 2014

NFPA® 1720 Standard for the Organization and Deployment of Fire Suppression Operations, Emergency Medical Operations, and Special Operations to the Public by Volunteer Fire Departments 2014 Edition This edition of NFPA 1720, Standard for the Organization and Deployment of Fire Suppression Operations, Emergency Medical Operations, and Special Operations to the Public by Volunteer Fire Departments, was prepared by the Technical Committee on Fire and Emergency Service Organization and Deployment-Volunteer. It was issued by the Standards Council on June 28, 2013, with an effective date of July 18, 2013, and supersedes all previous editions. This edition of NFPA 1720 was approved as an American National Standard on July 18, 2013. Origin and Development of NFPA 1720 In 2001, the first edition of NFPA 1720 was issued. The development of that benchmark standard was the result of a considerable amount of hard work and tenacity by the Technical Committee members and the organizations they represented. That standard was the first organized approach to defining levels of service, deployment capabilities, and staffing levels for substantially volunteer fire departments. Research work and empirical studies in North America were used by the Committee as a basis for developing response times and resource capabilities for those services, as identified by the fire department. Following the issuance of the first edition, the NFPA Standards Council asked the Technical Committee to begin the revision process for a 2004 edition of the standard. The Committee reviewed and revised the first edition of NFPA 1720. Existing definitions were cleaned up and new definitions added where needed to assist users of the standard. A new section on community risk management was added as was an annex titled "Risk Management Model." New sections were also added on "reporting requirements" and "initial attack." Annex material that included extracted figures from NFPA 1221, Standard for the Installation, Maintenance, and Use of Emergency Services Communications Systems, was added to assist users in determining if calls for service were being properly handled. The 2010 edition of NFPA 1720 standardized and refined terminology and definitions used in the document. Table 4.3.2 was editorially revised to make it more understandable and the requirement that the fire department have the capability to initiate an attack within 2 minutes of having necessary resources at the scene in remote areas was moved from the footnotes to a new paragraph and made applicable to all operations. Introductory material for Table 4.3.2 was modified to indicate the requirements apply to a structure fire in a typical 2000 ft² (186 m²), two-story single family dwelling without basement and with no exposures. Text was added in the annex to assist users in calculating the percentage of times they meet the objective. A new section on sustained fire-fighting operations was added and several sections were revised and reorganized to present the requirements in a more logical order. The annex material that discusses the requirements in NFPA 1221 was expanded and the two figures extracted from NFPA 1221 updated. Annex B was extensively revised to make it more concise by removing ambiguous text and figures. Annex C was deleted in its entirety. The work done by the Committee provided the user with a template for developing an implementation plan on the standard. Most important, it provided the body politic and the citizens a true picture of the risks in their community and the fire department's capabilities to respond to and manage those risks. For the 2014 edition of NFPA 1720, the Committee reaffirmed the existing approach to providing emergency services for substantially volunteer fire departments. They also added a turnout time requirement for staffed stations.