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MIOSHA hits Owosso public safety department with $15,000 in fines
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Friday, August 5, 2005 10:24 AM EDT
Owosso's Department of Public Safety was recently fined $15,000 by the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MIOSHA) for a list of "serious" health and safety violations.
The fines cover 32 citations, mostly for inadequate equipment, training, policy and procedures for departments firefighters.
Violations include worn tires on fire trucks, fire-damaged turnout gear, inadequate procedures for emergency operations such as structure fires, vehicle crashes, Hazmat situations, water rescue, severe weather conditions, bomb threats, electrical hazards, natural gas and power lines, according to a MIOSHA report issued last week.
Employees within the department contacted MIOSHA to report the violations.
Most of the violations must be corrected by Aug. 22 to avoid additional fines, though several violations have been granted a 60-day extension.
Most of Owosso's violations are classified as "serious." MIOSHA Division Director Jon Brennan, with the General Industry, Safety and Health Division, said any serious classification involves a violation that could cause serious injury or death if not corrected.
Brennan added that though MIOSHA takes every violation seriously, its biggest concerns are in 'willful' or 'woeful' violations.
"When we see that, there are usually bigger issues at stake. It generally means the employer has a total disregard for the safety of their employees, but we don't see that here," he said.
Owosso Public Safety Director Michael Compeau stressed that the violations involve issues that predated his supervision of the fire department.
"These are not problems I created, I inherited them and I've been trying to correct them. Why they hadn't been handled in the past is beyond me," he said.
Compeau was hired as Owosso's police chief in May 2003 and was promoted a year later to a newly created post - Public Safety Director - that was tasked with overseeing the police, fire and ambulance services.
The violations followed a MIOSHA inspection between March 1 and May 16, starting about 10 months after Compeau's oversight of the department began.
"When I took over the fire department, I realized that there were many things that were not up-to-date within the department and I've been working to correct them," said Compeau.
Some of the violations that already have been corrected include the implementation of a written respiratory protection program and providing proper holding/containment when filling the department's Self Contained Breathing Apparatus (S.C.B.A.) gear.
A $140,000 state grant provided the department with new S.C.B.A. gear and a filling station a few months ago.
If the violations are corrected, the fine may cut in half, according to Brennan. However, if the cited problems aren't abated by the granted deadlines, fines of up to $1,000 per violation may be issued each day until they are found in compliance.
Brennan said the frequency of these types of violations in fire departments was difficult to determine.
"We do cite the same kind of violations in other fire departments, but then we also inspect departments where we find something else or no violations at all," said Brennan.