Firefighter Right to Know & Hazardous Materials

The Holland Department of Public Safety (HDPS) Fire Division, as well as other fire departments, are required to have a knowledge of hazardous materials in commercial facilities that they may respond to in the event of a fire or emergency. This is primarily required by Section 14i of Act 154 which is the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Act however other agencies such as the EPA have promulgated laws and rules that require the same. 

Safety

In summary, MIOSHA requires that the Fire Chief of an organized fire department prepare and disseminate to each firefighter a plan for the department's responsibilities when responding to facilities within the jurisdiction that use, produce or store hazardous materials. This requirement is to ensure firefighter safety and allow responders to serve their communities in a more effective manner when responding to fires and emergencies in facilities with hazardous materials.

Documents

• View the rules and requirements that the department must comply with. This is referred to as "Fire Marshal Bulletin 9 (PDF)." 
• View the survey (PDF) that we require facilities to complete advisings the department of the presence of hazardous materials.

Facility representatives may be directed to this page to obtain those documents. If you have not been directed to this site but are a business located in the City of Holland we request that you complete the survey and keep us up to date on your inventories. Once completed we request that you email the survey to the Fire Department.

Planning & Response

Once these are received, they are reviewed by our Fire Marshal and site-specific information is placed in our pre-incident planning and response software where responding personnel can gather it and review it while responding to incidents that occur.

Thank You

Thank you in advance for your assistance. This information is valuable and allows us to provide for the safety of our personnel and better serve the community.