Apr 7, 2015 2 min read

ELLSWORTH – Many firefighters across the United States believe they are exempt from wearing seat belts when they answer calls because they are emergency responders, the National Fallen Firefighter Foundation says.

“They’re not,” foundation instructor Andy Marsh said Monday when he challenged members of Ellsworth Volunteer Fire Company to accept the group’s challenge to join its Everyone Goes Home program.

The program strives to reduce the number of preventable firefighter deaths by encouraging firefighters to be safe and commit to wearing seat belts, Marsh said.

Ellsworth is the second fire department after Peters Township to accept the challenge in Washington County, said Frank Faryna, assistant fire chief in Ellsworth.

“Our standard operating procedure is you put that seat belt on even if you are just driving down the street to get gas,” Faryna said.

It started to become standard in the 1980s and 1990s for firefighters not to cling to the sides or back bumpers of trucks while en route to emergencies because “too many line of duty deaths and injuries were occurring” because they were falling off the vehicles, Faryna said.

All Ellsworth vehicles contain stickers reminding firefighters to buckle up, and the newer ones have sensors that sound alarms when seat belts are not fastened, he said.

“It’s important to us,” he added. Eighty one firefighters died in the line of duty in 2012, with nine of them occurring in Pennsylvania, Marsh said.

“We are committed to ensuring all firefighters wear seat belts,” he said.