UPDATED: COVID-19 Guidance for Fire Department and Union Operations

As the coronavirus (COVID-19) began to spread in the United States and Canada, we took early and unprecedented steps to protect the safety and well-being of our members and staff, their families and the communities in which we work and live.

The U.S. federal government has proposed three-phase guidelines for states and regions to reopen. It is important to mitigate the risk of resurgence, continue to protect those most vulnerable and make decisions that are based on the most up-to-date data during this transition.

We have developed Guidance for Fire Department and Union Operations to assist affiliates and their fire departments in returning to normal operations in accordance with federal, state and local guidance as communities begin to reopen to maintain the health and safety of our workforce as we continue to provide optimum service to our communities during this transition.

Affiliates should evaluate the trajectory of COVID-19 cases in their region independently as we are already seeing states opening nonessential businesses, though these states have not satisfied the criteria in the federal guidance.