There is legislative news out of Albany where the State Senate has unanimously approved a bill which would promote youth involvement in volunteer fire departments. The bill is awaiting consideration in the Assembly. It permits participants in youth programs to respond to emergencies in certain situations.
The bill amends Section 204-b(5) of the General Municipal Law. That section starts, and this part stays:
“All activities of participants in such [youth] programs shall be approved in advance by the chief, or his or her designee.”
This part disappears:
“No activities may include emergency duties in connection with fire department or fire company operations or any other hazardous activity.”
It is replaced by the following:
“Participants may respond to an emergency or hazardous activity, but shall remain in a designated or marked off area that has been set up by the chief or officer in charge. Such participant cannot respond to an emergency on a vehicle using lights and/or sirens. Furthermore, such participants may not enter a burning structure nor shall participants in a youth program pursuant to this section fall under the definition of active volunteer firefighter as defined in section three of the volunteer firefighters’ benefit law.”
According to Senator Pam Helming, who sponsored the bill, “this bill gives our volunteer fire departments a tool to recruit new members at a time when they are looking for ways to grow their volunteer base.”
I am not sure how it relates to EMS activities, but at this point I would assume that the youth program participants would be able to respond if there was a fire department component, for example at an MVA.
You might want to ask your Assemblyman to get out in front of this bill and make it a law.
