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"Something firefighters' should know"

I would like to tell you of an important flaw in the Workers' Compensation System for volunteer firefighters in New York. In October of 1972, six months after I became an active member of the Bushnell's Basin Volunteer Fire Department in the town of Perinton, I was struck by a car while directing traffic at a fire scene. I was only seventeen years old.

My injuries included two broken legs, a fractured skull, a stroke, collapsed lungs, and numerous internal injuries. I was in a coma for 3.5 weeks. My parents were told that I had a 50-50 chance to live. When I came out of the coma I was expected to live a normal life and be glad that I was alive. I was awarded $80.00 per week from the Workers' Compensation Board.

I tried in vain to live a normal life. After I got out of the hospital, it took me an extra three years just to finish High School. Then I tried to work. From 1975 until 1992 I had twenty-seven different jobs. Finally it was suggested by a friend that I have a neurological exam to see just what my problem was with keeping myself employed. A neuropsycholgist, Peter Sorman, Ph.D., determined that I suffered lasting effects from my traumatic brain injury. Apparently this went undiagnosed because there wasn't the technology then that there is today. I was told that I have emotional discontrol because of the constant pain that I still suffer from in my back, legs and feet. Over stimulation is also a problem. Also, I have long and short term memory dysfunction. I have learned different methods to cope with these problems.

Since 1972, I have suffered with my physical limitations as well as the traumatic brain injury. Still I was receiving only $80.00 per week. I thought that this was unfair and not right. My wife and I spent hours in the local library looking up the workers' compensation law as it pertained to volunteer firefighters in New York State.

I discovered that the benefits that permanently disabled volunteer firefighters may receive are locked into the year that they are injured. I was injured in 1972, so my benefit dollar was locked at $80.00 per week. But, if you take the same volunteer firefighter and his injury occured in 1992, his benefit dollar is locked at $400.00 per week. See the difference?

I did, and I wanted to do something about it. I couldn't just sit around and be glad that I was alive like I was told back when I had my first introduction to the Workers' Compensation System. I went before the workers' compensation law judge in 1993 with information with information from my physicians about my newly explained traumatic brain injury. I said that I believed I was entitled to more than $80.00 per week.

The Judge said that I was not entitled to any more money, and then said, "If you want to do anything about this, then change the workers' compensation law."

I met with my local State Legislators Assemblyman James Alesi and Senator Michael Nozzolio and we drafted a personal bill that would direct the workers' compensation board of New York to redetermine my award of disability benefit as if I had been injured on or after July 1, 1992.

I was told that all I was doing here was grasping at straws, hanging my dreams on rubber hooks. Nothing like this had ever been attempted; the possibility of my bill ever getting out of the Assembly and Senate Committee's for a vote, and then being sent to the Governor for his signature was really slim to none. Numerous people told me to give up. Some were downright rude.

With the support of the Bushnell's Basin Volunteer Fire Department, Monroe County Fire Coordinator Ed Riley, and others throughout the county, I wrote letters to members of the Assembly and Senate legislative committees, as well as to every member of the Assembly and Senate asking them to support my personal bill.

I spoke before numerous Town Boards, Village Boards, & County Legislatures all across the State asking for Memorializing Resolutions in support of my personal bill. I also received the strong backing of the Monroe County Volunteer Firemen's Association, and the Firemans' Association of the State of New York, which strongly lobbied the Legislature in support of my bill.

With all this backing, plus the unanimous bipartisian support in both houses, my personal bill S-1657 was passed and signed as Chapter 481 of the Laws of 1996 by Governor George Pataki. Thanks to Senator James Alesi and Assemblyman David Koon.

I also began working with New York State Senator Mary Ellen Jones of Rochester and Assemblyman Paul Tonko of Amsterdam on getting legislation passed that would raise the level of benefits to other volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers who were injured before July of 1992. There were some totally and permanently disabled volunter firefighters in New York who were trying to make ends meet on benefits that are locked into the 1967 benefit rate of $65.00 per week. In the fall of 1998, that bill was also passed unanimously by the Legislature and signed into law by Governor Pataki.

Volunteers in other states also suffer with disability benefits that are locked into the year that they were permanently injured. Workers' Compensation laws vary quite a bit from state to state. Some give volunteers the same disability coverage that a career firefighter in a neighboring community would be provided. Some states provide no disability benefits under workers' compensation at all for volunteer firefighters injured in the line of duty, because it's perceived to be a no loss job. The reasoning in the states that don't cover volunteers is that since they weren't being paid, they haven't lost any wages because of their injuries. Is this right? Some states regard volunteer firefighters as employees of the municipality where they serve, others address them as ordinary workers, and in some states its left up to the local jurisdiction to decide.

Some states actually allow workers' compensation to be optional, where fire departments don't necessarily have to buy into workers' compensation.

Even if workers compensation covers volunteers, some states have limitations on that coverage; Some cover volunteers only for official duties on the scene of an emergency, but may not cover firefighters injured in training or in fund-raising events.

Some states include cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs); some don't. Some pay benefits in a lump sum, some pay a percentage of wages before the injury, with benefits ranging from 40 to 100 percent of pre-injury wages, some benefits are paid for a limited amount of time; others are paid for the duration of the disability. Is this justice for all? Just think how much volunteers save us in taxes. People and businnesses count on the local volunteers to respond to calls for help. We would have to rely on paid firefighters from the cities to answer these calls for help in the rural communities. Just imagine how high taxes would be then.

Shouldn't there be federal legislation that would make it manditory for each state to provide fair and updated disability benefits for their volunteer firefighters? These dedicated people protect the lives and property in each community in the United States. They all deserve to be protected equally.

I have been trying to get this information to as many volunteer firefighters across the country as possible. My story has been printed in the following magazines: October 1998 issue of American Firefighters & Response Crews, May/June 1999 National Fire & Rescue Magazine, July 1999 issue American Trauma Society.

There's something "drastically wrong" with the current volunteer firefighter disability system in the United States.

It needs to be rewritten so every volunteer is protected when they answer the call for "Help", in their community!

Sincerely,
T. Michael Nicholson
922 Fenwick Lane
Victor, NY 14564
Email T. Michael Nicholson