Good Samaritan Volunteer Firefighter Assistance Act

Every year quality fire equipment, including hoses, fire trucks, protective clothing, and breathing apparatus, with an estimated worth in the millions of dollars, is destroyed or discarded by industry and larger fire departments instead of being donated to small fire departments in order to avoid civil liability lawsuits. The fear of litigation has forced heavy industry and wealthier fire departments to waste surplus equipment, which in many cases has years of potential use remaining.

 

Under the Good Samaritan Volunteer Firefighter Assistance Act, a company or fire department that donates fire control or fire rescue equipment to a volunteer fire company will not be held liable for personal injuries or property damage caused by a defect in the equipment. The bill does not protect those persons who act with malice, gross negligence, or recklessness in making the donation; nor does it protect the manufacturer of the donated equipment.

 

Language that was nearly identical to the Good Samaritan Volunteer Firefighter Assistance Act was inserted into the conference report of the reauthorization of the Patriot Act, which was signed into law on March 9, 2006. Under the Patriot Act language, equipment must be recertified as meeting the manufacturer’s specifications by a technician who has been certified by the manufacturer of fire control or fire rescue equipment to inspect such equipment in order for the protection from liability to apply.

 

The NVFC is concerned that this language has created a standard that is unreachable for most organizations considering donating equipment.  It isn’t clear who would actually recertify the equipment as it is not a practice that manufacturers, who the Patriot Act tasks with recertification, currently participate in. Even if manufacturers were willing to recertify equipment, it is doubtful that they would do it for free and also unlikely that the donating party would be willing to bear the significant costs associated with recertification. The NVFC is working in the 111th Congress to enact the Good Samaritan Volunteer Firefighter Assistance Act as originally written.