Fire departments across the country are bracing for big changes to federal safety standards that are intended to keep firefighters safe on the job.

But in Minnesota, there’s growing concern that red tape could break the budgets of hundreds of small, volunteer fire departments and ultimately increase the time it takes crews to respond in an emergency.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, published a 250-page draft of the regulations last year. The document details mandatory equipment upgrades, training requirements and administrative duties.

When Cokato City Council member Kevin Wilson heard about the proposed changes, he did some quick, back-of-the-napkin math.

It would cost the city at least $4.5 million to replace the fire engines and other vehicles that would be expired under the proposed standards, a figure that eclipses the annual budget for the entire city.

“That’s just the trucks,” Wilson said during an interview with 5 INVESTIGATES. “Per firefighter, we’re probably looking at about $40,000 a year with equipment and the amount of training and everything else. And we just don’t have that budget.”

Balancing safety and reliability

The proposed standards are two decades in the making. In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the federal government began looking at how it could better prepare for terrorist stacks of other major disasters.

After a years-long review, OSHA determined the current standards “do not adequately protect” firefighters from the hazards of the job.

Cokato Fire Chief Jimmy Martinson knows better than anyone that the job can be deadly. Five years ago, his father died from a lung disease related to his years in the fire service.

But Martinson worries the mandates would cost not only the city money but also manpower.

“Training-wise, they’re talking up to 300 hours per firefighter for training hours per year,” he said. “We meet two to three times a month and we train for several hours per night. All of a sudden, you’re going to lose firefighters because they’re not going to have the time.”

Currently, Cokato has a full roster of 30 volunteer firefighters. But Martinson and others are concerned the proposed regulations could force even smaller departments to shut down entirely, increasing response times in some of the state’s rural communities.

“Eventually, if these fire departments start having to close or consolidate, you’re going to have less and less of that availability, which would be huge,” Martinson said.

It’s not just volunteer fire departments that may feel the impact.

St. Michael operates a “paid on call” fire department, where firefighters are paged to respond to incidents and are paid for the time they spend on calls.

City Administrator Steve Bot said despite a booming population and growing tax base, officials in the outer ring suburb are looking at raising taxes at least 10% to offset the cost of the mandates.

Asking for exemptions

One of Bot’s concerns is also what happens if the city fails to meet the requirements.

“If OSHA passes something, we have to follow it, and it is regulated, and it’s fineable, and it’s enforceable,” he said during a recent interview.

Bot, along with other city administrators and fire officials, met with Congressman Tom Emmer last summer to raise these issues.

“They believe OSHA has vastly underestimated what this is going to cost volunteer fire departments,” Emmer, a Republican who represents the St. Cloud area, said. “They’re very concerned.”

Minnesota’s Republican congressional delegation penned a letter to the Department of Labor’s then-Acting Secretary Julie Su, asking the agency to consider exemptions for volunteer and paid-on-call departments.

“Whether it was with good intentions or not, the potential consequences are severe and very problematic,” Emmer said.

Emmer told 5 INVESTIGATES he never heard from the agency. In September, OSHA posted a public statement acknowledging the concerns raised by volunteer fire departments, but the agency did not commit to any exemptions or carve-outs.

It’s unclear when the final draft of the proposed standards will be released. Earlier this month, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Labor said there are no updates at this time.

For now, local officials are left waiting to see if they’ll receive an exemption from the rules.

“A one-size-fits-all, strict regulatory policy is not what we need for all cities going forward,” Bot said.