International Association of Fire Fighters Alberta
IAFF Alberta
NFPA 1710
IAFF Alberta is keenly focused on appropriate response standards and staffing levels. Inadequate response standards and staffing lead to unsafe working conditions for Fire Fighters and increased risk to community safety.
The Standard for Safe Staffing
Acceptable Standard
The National Fire Protection Association's (NFPA) 1710 Standard sets the benchmark for staffing a career Fire Department should strive for. It isn't an easy standard to meet, but it rightly articulates the minimum number of Fire Fighters required at a structure fire to suppress it safely and in time. NFPA 1710 recommends a minimum safe staffing level of 16 Fire Fighters for an initial alarm to a single-family home structure fire, with a 4-minute response time for the first arriving engine, 6 minutes for the second, and 10 minutes for the initial full alarm.
The Issue
Some groups continue to suggest that the recommendations from the 2007 High-Intensity Residential Fire (HIRF) Working Group should serve as, or at minimum inform, current response standards and staffing guidelines. This is inaccurate. The HIRF recommendations were building code recommendations, not emergency response guidelines. Treating them as one is creating a false sense of security that's being used to justify browning out fire stations and operating with unsafe Fire Fighter staffing levels.
Conclusion
NFPA 1710 is the only industry standard for emergency response and staffing levels. The National Building Code – Alberta Edition and the HIRF recommendations are not a substitute, alternative, or emergency response standard. They're two important, but not interchangeable, pieces of work.