CURRENT LAW COULD PLACE FIREFIGHTERS—AND YOU—AT RISK Mike McCagg ccSCOOP News For decades it has been common practice—the siren sounds and dozens of neighbors drop what they are doing and race to the local firehouse to respond to a fire or a vehicular accident, driving fire trucks through traffic and over winding roads with an ease that makes evident the training they have received from their fellow firefighters.

In Columbia County, the tradition of neighbors helping neighbors has been an essential part of the life, for none of the firefighters in the county are paid for the hundreds of hours of training, preparation, and emergency responses undertaken each year.

But four-year-old state legislation, which only this past month came to light, is placing that tradition at risk. The legislation, enacted in 2005, requires a commercial driver’s license (CDL) for anyone who drives fire apparatus from the scene of an emergency, out for maintenance or fuel, or to take part in a parade. In an odd twist, the legislation would still allow someone without a CDL to drive the apparatus to the scene of an emergency.

The impact of the legislation—were it to be enforced—could be devastating, since the vast majority of firefighters in the county and state do not possess commercial driver’s licenses. Instead they receive training from their fellow firefighters and through state fire school courses, such as Emergency Vehicle Operations, which train them in the intricacies of operating the several-ton vehicles in a safe manner.

In one local company, only five of the more than two dozen active firefighters possess CDLs. In another, even fewer have the license. In Red Rock, Assistant Fire Chief Tab Eigenbrodt said they have two trucks that would require CDLs and two members—himself and another firefighter—who have them, but there’s no guarantee that the two of them will be available to answer every call. Eigenbrodt, who is also a deputy county fire coordinator, calls the legislation “a problem.” “Hopefully no one has an accident.”

While local fire officials said they didn’t expect a police agency to pull over a fire truck and ticket the driver for not having a CDL, they did express some concern about the culpability of the driver, the fire company, and the company’s officers should a lawsuit arise from an accident or incident involving a driver who does not have a CDL.

Robert Leonard, a spokesman for the Firemen’s Association of the State of New York (FASNY), also said that he didn’t expect law enforcement agencies in the state to begin ticketing the drivers of fire apparatus. Leonard, who is a volunteer firefighter himself, said he wasn’t sure about the legal issues that could arise in a lawsuit. He told ccSCOOP that he expects the law to be repealed in short order.

“We have sponsors of legislation in the senate and the assembly that would return the exemption that protected firefighters from this requirement,” Leonard said. “We will get this taken care of within the next two weeks.”