by Hayden Bradfield
Published Thursday, Feb 26, 2026
There are four house and senate bills worth eyeing this legislative season pertaining to fire and emergency services, from adding enhanced protections for our first responders in the field to addressing funding concerns. Fire and emergency services have gained a more recent spotlight in Tennessee due to a debilitating shortage of manpower, public safety infrastructure that is struggling to adapt to population growth, and some concerns regarding the distribution and handling of grants and other taxpayer funding.
Below are four pieces of Legislation worth noting:
These bills seek to enhance the criminal charges and penalties for assaulting a firefighter, Emergency Medical Technician, Paramedic, or other emergency first responder. Tennessee is one of only a few states that do not have these enhanced protections in place. When the “Back the Blue Act” was passed just a few years ago, it increased the charges and penalties for assaulting a law enforcement officer, but it left out other first responders. This legislation’s intent is to fill these voids. If passed, it will increase an assault conviction from a Class A Misdemeanor to a Class E Felony, mandating 60 days minimum of incarceration and a $10,000 minimum fine.
Following the fatal killings of firefighters in Idaho during their response to a brush fire; a Firefighter/AEMT who was assaulted in Cumberland County, Tennessee while attending to a patient; and firefighters in Memphis who were fatally ambushed while responding to a fire call, mounting pressures towards lawmakers to take assaults against our first responders more seriously have become more persistent.
Like with law enforcement, other first responders such as our firefighters, EMS personnel, and rescue crews often face the same uncontrolled, rapidly-changing, and less-predictable environments. Exposure to biohazards such as bodily fluids, caring for agitated patients and bystanders, and exposure to environmental factors such as high-speed traffic and toxic materials are just some of the many daily risks that our first responders deal with.
While there have been some recent efforts to incentivize the recruitment and retention of volunteer firefighters, there are of course other ways to help address the health and wellbeing of those who sacrifice their time, energy, and sometimes their lives to protect us. These bills seek to give volunteer firefighters access to the state employees’ assistance programs, especially programs related to health and wellness.
Many of our fire departments are not only facing critical staffing shortages but funding issues as well. 42 percent of Tennessee’s 692 fire departments are classified as either “At-Risk” or “Distressed” based on data from the Tennessee Fire Marshal’s Office. HB2394 and its companion senate bill SB1651 seeks to compel counties to direct prioritization of public safety funding to county-wide fire departments and volunteer fire departments who request financial assistance from the counties they service. While EMS was just recently designated as an essential service at the state level, fire services have yet to be given this declaration. This bill may open an avenue towards deeming fire services as essential.
Tennessee is a unique state where we tend to separate emergency service functionalities to different agencies and organizations. While many fire departments throughout the nation are multi-disciplined and incorporate ambulance services and rescue into their core responsibilities, this is actually not a very common concept in Tennessee. Many rescue functions, such as rescuing injured persons trapped in vehicles, marine-related rescue, and rescues involving trench collapse and angles are often handled by organizations called “Rescue Squads.”
This bill seeks to impose stricter regulation on which entities can claim to be a rescue squad in the state, in addition to imposing additional training standards.
While some concerns have been raised because these bills impose new fees and regulations on rescue squads during a time when these crucial resources are struggling with both volunteer staffing levels and financial burdens, lawmakers have assured the intention of these bills are to prevent fraud in the disbursement of grants.