Governor S Fire Service Policy Council s1

Governor’s Fire Service Policy Council Executive Director: James Walker Office of State Fire Marshal 3565 Trelstad Ave. SE Salem, OR 97317

January 24, 2017

Dear Council Members:

The Firefighter Injury Statistics Task Force was developed in July of 2014 by the Governor’s Fire Service Policy Council to determine the accuracy of Firefighter injuries statistics in the State of Oregon. The task force met quarterly for a period of twenty-four months through conventional meetings, teleconferences, and online. The task force held its first organizational meeting on September 17, 2014 to confirm members of the task force and to establish a charter. The task force consisted of members representing DCBS Workers Compensation, Oregon Fire Chiefs Association, Eugene-Springfield Fire, the Office of State Fire Marshal, Special Districts Association of Oregon, Canby Fire District, City & County Insurance Services, Oregon State Firefighter Council, Department of Public Safety Standards and Training, Portland Fire, Jackson County Fire District 3, and the Oregon Volunteer Firefighters Association. The groups objectives as identified in the charter are as follows: identify what injury data is currently being collected by various government, national non-profit, and insurance organizations; identify what data is needed that is currently not being collected; produce an annual report of Oregon firefighter injuries and to provide a mechanism of delivery. Soon after the origination of the task force, members were made aware of a potential partnership with Drexel University’s Firefighter Injury Research and Safety Trends-Reliability Study (FIRST-RS) project. The FIRST-RS project is a grant-funded program to help states and fire departments build injury data systems. Its funding primarily comes from the FEMA Assistance to Firefighters Grants (AFG) program. In a previously funded project, FIRST partnered with the State of Florida and with the Philadelphia Fire Department to study firefighter injury statistics, identify trends, and evaluate the safety culture of the fire service as a predictor to future injuries. In 2013, FIRST received new funding to expand its data models to new state and fire departments, including the Boston Fire Department. In January of 2015, task force members began discussions with representatives from Drexel University’s FIRST-RS program. The task force members quickly understood the magnitude of this program and the outcomes it could provide. The FIRST-RS project requires particular information of Oregon firefighters, specifically date of birth and social security numbers. Oregon has rules in place to prevent such information to be shared so a couple of task force members worked diligently with Oregon’s Department of Justice to see if we had the ability to access the data for purposes of research; unfortunately, our efforts were unsuccessful. During this time, we were in constant communication with representatives from the FIRST-RS project and we appreciated their efforts to assist us in this process. During this short time, we were able to establish new relationships, expand our partnerships with information sources within Oregon, and further understand the scope of our work. With this news, the task force reconvened and discussed our next steps and what they looked like. We were able to expand our initial data sources and felt we could collect the needed data for analysis with identified sources within Oregon. What we quickly learned over the next few meetings was we could acquire all of the needed data, but the real task would be how to sort it, cross-reference it, and create a usable report. At the conclusion of the twenty-four months, the task force was able to identify what injury data is currently being collected by various government, national non-profit and insurance organizations. Through this work, we were also able to identify what data is needed that is not currently being collected. Task force members also analyzed injury data provided by the Office of State Fire Marshal, City & County Insurance Services, Jackson County Fire District 3, DCBS Workers Compensation, and Department of Public Safety Standards and Training. While the data is being collected, the task force discovered there was no linking mechanism in place to compare data across agencies, departments, and organizations. Unfortunately, the data being collected is not usable for objective analysis because of reporting inequality and medical privacy. The task force also discovered that due to privacy rules in place, creating an annual report containing incident information is not currently achievable. In summary, the task force members worked diligently to achieve all of our goals as identified in our charter. We feel we exhausted all of our options working towards these goals and while we did not identify a defined outcome, we believe the analysis of this injury is critical in identifying trends and preventing future firefighter injuries. The task force respectfully recommends the following:  Utilize a permanent sitting body such as the Oregon Fire Chief’s Association (OFCA) Safety & Health Section (SHS) to research options for how objective analysis of this data can be accomplished in the State of Oregon. Lastly, I would like to commend all task force members for their efforts and time spent on this project! As you know, without their time and the support of each member’s agency, this venture would not have been possible. I’d be happy to answer any questions the council may have regarding our work, and I look forward to hearing from the council at the January 24, 2017 meeting.

Respectfully,

Dave Blakely, Chair GFSPC Firefighter Injury and Statistics Task Force