Master Plan Nashua Fire Rescue, NH
NFPA 1500: Standard on Fire Department Occupational Safety and Health Program, is the industry standard
for the development and administration of a fire department safety program. ESCI strongly encourages the
Department to ensure all safety committee activities are in alignment with Chapter 4 of NFPA 1500. To be
effective, safety committees must be diverse in their representation from across the department, ensuring
representation by shift, rank, function, and interest, and including representation from non-uniformed and
staff members as well.
The safety committee should meet monthly and include in its mission the raising of awareness and modifying
of member behaviors that will result in a safe work environment. Additionally, the committee should review
all accidents, injuries, near-miss incidents, and workplace safety suggestions. The committee should analyze
the information and report its findings to the Fire Chief. In contrast to being reactionary through the
development of additional rules, ESCI recommends that the committee should work to implement member
safety education programs and encourage members’ safety self-awareness. The committee should maintain
regular and open meeting times and locations; and minutes of the meetings should be recorded and posted
for all members of the department to review.
One issue that was repeatedly brought up to ESCI during the site visit meetings was a strong desire by the
membership to have quiet stations. Nashua Fire Rescue responded to more than 8,000 calls last year. That’s
an average of 21 calls per day. At the time of ESCI’s site visit, firefighters in every station heard the radio
traffic for every call, whether or not the members of that station were assigned to respond.
A study published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine in 2018 found higher rates of hypertension
and high cholesterol in people who were regularly exposed to loud noises at work. Loud noises were defined
as four or more hours a day, several days a week, when individuals needed to raise their voice or shout to be
heard by someone standing a few feet away. The researchers concluded that as many as 14% of cases of
hypertension and 9% of cases of high cholesterol were potentially a result of noise exposure—possibly due
to the stress of a loud working environment. Nashua Fire Rescue should make it a priority to alert only the
fire station(s) that are dispatched to calls to reduce the constant radio traffic that is currently transmitted to
all of the stations.
Career Development
Article 31 of the collective bargaining agreement between the City of Nashua and Local #789 includes the
following Career Development Benefits:
= The City agrees to provide each station with the following IFSTA manuals: forcible entry, ground
ladder practices, hose, salvage and overhaul, fire streams, apparatus, ventilation, rescue and
protective breathing practices, first aid, inspection, training programs, water supplies, aircraft, fire
department officer, and facilities.
= The City agrees to purchase and make available the textbooks used in firefighting courses, which
textbooks shall be retained by the department after use by individual employees.
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