AHJ – the Authority Having Jurisdiction – also, the Authority Assuming or Having Liability.
When it comes to the use of Class A Foam Concentrates, the AHJ could be local, county, state or Federal.
As an example, on all Federal Lands (except DOD – maybe), the AHJ is known as the NWCG (National Wildfire Coordinating Group). The NWCG is made up of all Federal Land management agencies (USFS, NPS, BIA, FWL, BLM) and all State Land agencies. Every state has a land agency. The names vary and might reference a State Land Dept., State Forestry, Dept. of Natural Resources, etc. NWCG utilizes the USFS to test and list all Class A Foam concentrates that meet their guidelines – these products are then listed on the Qualified Products List – QPL. Foam concentrates not listed can not and must not be utilized on Federal & State Lands.
State Level AHJ’s might include the State Land agency mentioned above, or the State Fire Marshall’s Office, or the State Emergency Manager. Sometimes these agencies might list concentrates for approved use however, most probably do not do any testing.
Local AHJ’s might include a County Emergency Services manager or local fire department.
The question is – who can approve a product for use? The answer might be another question – who is taking the liability for approving a product? Does a fire department have the resources to test a foam (including developing the test standards and having the manpower and equipment resources to conduct such testing)?
If no product approval exists at the state level, how does a department know what product to use? The decision could be made locally or the local jurisdiction might want to defer the decision to an entity that HAS developed a standard and tested products to that standard.
At CompressedAirFoam.com, if there is no high level (state) approval, the recommendation is to utilize the USFS – QPL. The listed products have been tested to a standard and have been approved for use on State & Federal lands.
