The next meeting of the NHSFA is scheduled for Thursday May 17th at Bedford Fire Department, 55 Constitution Dr Bedford NH at 6 PM in the Fire Department training room on the 2nd floor. All members are welcome to attend.
It has been a tragic couple of week. York PA, New York, West Virginia, Ohio. It is a dangerous job we all do but step back and pay attention to your surroundings. Interior, exterior, driving. Be careful. We cant do the job if we aren’t there.
Our condolences to all the families of the fallen……..
The next meeting of the NHSFA will be at Rochester Fire Department Headquarters March 15th at 7 PM. All NHSFA members are welcome to attend. See our spotlight department of the month this month!
To the members of the NH Fire Service. As a member of the NHSFA in support of the NH Fire Chiefs and the NH Firefighters Union we encourage you to contact your state representatives to support SB 541. Please write your representative to learn more about this bill so we can protect the future of our firefighting members.
I am writing today in support of SB 541, an act establishing a fund to reimburse costs associated with Firefighters who contract occupational cancer.
The fire service has long suspected that cancer rates in Firefighters were higher than the general population. We now have the data to support this. Studies by the University of Cincinnati and the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health establish a relationship between our occupation and certain cancers. With this information, the New Hampshire Fire Service has aggressively taken steps improve our educational initiatives to make sure that all members of the New Hampshire Fire Service are aware of the dangers and risks associated with our profession. We have adopted new practices that will assist with limiting our exposure from cleaning, inspecting and maintenance of our protective clothing and consistent air monitoring at fire scenes to make sure quality decisions can be made regarding respiratory protection. All of these improvements certainly limits the risk, but does not eliminate it.
SB 541 will establish a funding mechanism for Firefighters suffering with occupational cancer. This fund will pay for treatment as well as wages when the Firefighter cannot work. This is consistent with HB 671 which was signed into law in 1987 by Governor John Sununu.
SB 541 also establishes a requirement for a comprehensive medical physical as outlined by the National Fire Protection Association standard 1582. Further, it will require a Firefighter to have a tobacco-free lifestyle. The physical program will be phased in over three years, with financial support coming from reimbursement through this program.
We would encourage you to review SB 541 in totality for further specific details.
Christine Jameson Testifies on Cancer Coverage Bill
Powerful testimony this afternoon in Senate Finance from Christine Jameson, whose husband Kyle, a Hampton Firefighter, died of cancer in 2016. She and others in the fire service are supporting SB541, sponsored by Senator Dan Innis, which would provide a mechanism to finally make cancer a *funded* worker's compensation claim for New Hampshire firefighters.
Posted by Adam Sexton WMUR on Tuesday, January 23, 2018
The next membership meeting of the NHSFA will be 7 PM March 15th. Meeting place TDB at this time. Meetings are open to all members of the NHSFA.
Why is there a dotted line? These are decal plates, Firefighter, UNH and Rotary each have the same plate. The decals must be placed in a certain placement on the plate.
Why is there not an embossed or printed FF plate? Due to the high cost to manufacture the plate in embossed or screen printed and the low numbers to sell such a plate the state did not want the large investment. At that point most of the proceeds would have gone to the state.
Why can i not have my own decal? The decals are only approved by the department of transportation. Each decal has to have gone through the process of approval. This is the only decal approved for the license plate.
Where do the proceeds go? The proceeds from the sale of the firefighter decal go to the NH State Firemen s Association Memorial Fund. This is the only fund to provide the upkeep, expansion and costs to manage the memorial that supports all firefighter in NH.
Why must the decals be sent to the Fire Chief? In order to satisfy the Fire Chiefs in that they are aware who has a firefighter decal in their town, the decals must be sent to the Fire Chief for approval before the firefighter receives the decal. The decals are only for active or retired firefighters. The legislation clearly addresses the decals are for “Firefighters or Retired Firefighters”.
The Decals for the Firefighter or Retired Firefighter license plates will be available for purchase January 15, 2018.
The next meeting of the NHSFA will be at Ashland Fire Department at 1900. All members are invited to attend. Regular business of the association will commence at 1900.
Please see our page on License plates on our menu for more information.
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu today announced that his state will pursue the FirstNet “opt-out” alternative with Rivada Networks building and maintaining the LTE radio access network instead of AT&T, resulting in New Hampshire becoming the first state to make an “opt-out” announcement.
Sununu’s announcement followed a unanimous “opt-out” recommendation from New Hampshire’s Statewide Interoperability Executive Committee in October and the delivery of a risk-assessment report from the state’ FirstNet Opt-Out Review Committee earlier this week.
“After reviewing the report from the FirstNet Opt-Out Review Committee, it is clear that, while an opt-out decision comes with regulatory and financial risks, those risks can be mitigated through the safeguards and contractual provisions that the committee has recommended,” Sununu said in a prepared statement. “I am incredibly grateful to the members of the Opt-Out Review Committee for their assistance in our due-diligence evaluation.
“Rivada has proposed a plan that has the potential to provide immense value to our state, including unparalleled public-safety infrastructure investments that will lead to unmatched and near-universal coverage for the new public safety network. If we successfully navigate the opt-out path, New Hampshire will retain a level of control that it would not have enjoyed in an opt-in scenario. I am pleased that we have the opportunity to pursue a plan that will provide the maximum benefit to our public safety community and all of our citizens. New Hampshire deserves nothing less.”
New Hampshire Attorney General Gordon MacDonald said his office is prepared to ensure that the state’s “opt-out” initiative is a successful one.
“As chief law-enforcement officer, today’s announcement marks an important development for our state and for its first responders,” MacDonald said in a prepared statement. “As we begin the next phase of the process, the Department of Justice is ready to engage immediately with Rivada and FirstNet to ensure that appropriate protections are in place to fully protect New Hampshire’s interests.”
Sununu’s announcement does not mean that New Hampshire immediately has become an “opt-out” state, a designation that makes the state responsible for building and maintaining an alternative RAN that interoperates seamlessly with the nationwide FirstNet system being built by AT&T.
First, New Hampshire will need to reach a detailed agreement with Rivada Networks regarding the terms of their relationship.
New Hampshire issued its alternative RAN request for proposals (RFP) in December 2015 and selected Rivada Networks as its potential alternative-RAN vendor in September 2016. That 2016 agreement time included little detail other than naming Rivada Networks as the contractor, because very little was known about the architecture of the FirstNet system at the time, as FirstNet did not name AT&T as its nationwide contractor until March 2017.
Given New Hampshire’s lengthy history with Rivada Networks, many industry observers have indicated that Sununu’s decision would be extremely important to Rivada Networks as it tries to convince other governors to consider the “opt-out” alternative for their states.
Rivada Networks Chairman and CEO Declan Ganley was understandably pleased with Sununu’s “opt-out” announcement.
“Rivada is honored to have the opportunity to build a world-class public-safety RAN for the Granite State,” Ganley said in a prepared statement. “New Hampshire ran the longest and most thorough opt-out review process in the country. Now the real work of transforming New Hampshire’s public-safety communications can begin.
“We also look forward to other states joining New Hampshire in building their own FirstNet RANs between now and December 28. Rivada and its partners are ready to work with FirstNet and the states to roll out state RANs in any state that opts to follow this bottom-up approach to emergency communications.”
After Rivada Networks completes its detailed deployment plans for New Hampshire, the plans must be submitted to the FCC, which will determine whether the state’s proposed alterative RAN will meet the agency’s interoperability criteria for FirstNet.
If New Hampshire secures FCC approval, its alternative RAN proposal would be evaluated by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). NTIA last week released its evaluation criteria, which largely follows guidance that NTIA officials presented in August during the APCO 2017 show. The final piece of the “opt-out” process would be for New Hampshire to reach a spectrum-lease agreement with FirstNet.
