Enhanced standards of care for companies operating in fire-prone terrain.
Jeffrey Meston has spent 34 years in the fire service, retiring as the fire chief of the Novato, California Fire District. He serves as a fire service consultant to many governmental organizations and companies including Capstone Fire Management.
Many companies, industries, and professions have adopted the setting of standards for the manner in which various procedural, technical, and critical activities are conducted. Those written standards are especially useful when prudence is a necessity for the performance of high-risk activities involving employee safety, financial risk, system integrity, and legal exposure. They’re now common in manufacturing, medical, psychological, and real estate industries, as well as all forms of emergency medical response.
It might be time for regulated utilities to add such standards to their already significant library of safety best practices, accepted operating procedures, and standards of conduct, and in general begin including them in their overall culture of compliance. The first priority for such standards involves industry activities that present a high risk of ignition of wildfire in remote and fire-prone territory.