By Ceoli Jacoby
The Frederick News-Post
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — The widow of Frederick County Battalion Chief Joshua Laird and elected officials from Frederick County are continuing their push for stronger regulations on a common building material linked to the local firefighter’s death in the line of duty.
Corrugated stainless steel tubing (CSST) is a thin flexible piping material that is used to carry fuel gases such as liquid petroleum and propane through residences and commercial buildings.
When lightning strikes a building containing CSST, electricity can sometimes flow between the material and nearby metal objects, creating sparks or “arcing.”
This can lead to perforations in the tubing that allow gas to escape, adding fuel to a potential fire.
When it comes to fire protection, some kinds of CSST are safer than others.
A 2022 Maryland law named for Joshua Laird and Nathan Flynn — another firefighter from Howard County who died fighting a CSST-related fire — required the use of arc-resistant CSST in the construction of a new gas piping system, the replacement of an existing gas line or a renovation of more than half a property.
With arc-resistant CSST, the inner layer of tubing is covered with a conductive jacket that can help diffuse the energy generated by a lightning strike, making failures less likely.
State Sen. Karen Lewis Young (D- Frederick ) told the Senate Committee on Education, Energy and the Environment during a hearing on Thursday that the minimum standard for arc-resistant CSST is the ability to withstand 4.5 coulombs of electrical arcing charge.
However, Lewis Young said, the average lightning strike is between 15 and 24 coulombs.
“This means that even arc-resistant CSST is highly vulnerable to malfunction and higher safety standards are needed,” she said.
New legislation
SB175, sponsored by Lewis Young and Sen. Benjamin Brooks (D- Baltimore County ), would prohibit the sale, transfer or distribution of CSST that has not been proven through testing to withstand at least 36 coulombs of electrical arcing.
It would also enable the governing body of every Maryland county and Baltimore city to collect records of CSST installations showing that the materials used in each one meet the 36-coulomb requirement.
A person who violates the law could be fined up to $1,000.
The 36-coulomb requirement is based on the LC1027 testing criteria approved in 2011 by the International Code Council, an organization that develops model codes and standards for use by the building trades.
Earlier versions of the bill, including two cross-filed bills that did not advance out of committee during the 2024 Maryland General Assembly session, specifically referenced the LC1027 testing criteria.
The reference to the LC1027 testing criteria was removed from SB175 after some expressed concerns that only certain manufacturers of CSST would be able to meet it.
Frederick County Executive Jessica Fitzwater in 2024 and 2025 listed new safety standards for CSST among her priorities for the state legislature.
“As local and state government, we truly have a responsibility to our constituents — including our first responders — to adopt laws and policies that ensure the safety of our communities,” Fitzwater said during the hearing on Thursday.
Sara Laird, the widow of Joshua Laird, said on Thursday that the reason there have not been more CSST-related fatalities in Maryland is not because of a lack of opportunity, but because of the work that first responders like her late husband do in fighting fires.
“My daughters and I will carry this loss with us forever,” Sara Laird said. “My oldest will graduate from high school in a few months with a picture of her dad hanging from her cap. My youngest will get her [learner’s] permit next month, but it will be [ Frederick County Fire Chief Tom Coe ] and her father’s coworkers that are teaching her how to drive.”
Laird said that “almost every industry” in the United States has had to evolve to meet new safety standards and implored state lawmakers on Thursday to compel CSST manufacturers to “do better” through legislation.
Howard County Fire and Rescue Capt. Craig Matthews said he helped investigate the line-of-duty deaths of both Flynn and Joshua Laird. He said he has personally seen instances of even arc-resistant CSST failing and leading to fires.
Matthews stressed how difficult it is to walk a firefighter’s widow through the scene of a house fire where her husband died, “all because of a faulty product.”
“I don’t want to do this again,” he said.
Industry pushback and possible amendments
Several representatives of CSST manufacturers spoke in opposition to the bill on Thursday, arguing that the 36-coulomb requirement it promotes is unnecessary and out-of-step with the industry’s consensus standards.
Lisa Reiheld, an International Code Council staffer who focuses on the plumbing, mechanical and fuel gas codes, urged the Senate committee on Thursday to “trust the process that we have in place.”
Reiheld said the International Fuel Gas Code, from which the 4.5-coulomb requirement is derived, is updated every three years.
She said the International Code Council is currently in the process of amending the International Fuel Gas Code, but could not answer a question from Sen. Katie Fry Hester (D- Howard and Montgomery ) about whether any testing is being done to verify that the current safety standards for CSST are sufficient.
Michael Fleming, the chief plumbing inspector for Frederick County, said that even if the updated International Fuel Gas Code includes heightened safety standards for CSST, the state of Maryland would not adopt the updated code until 2033 “at the earliest.”
“During that time, this unsafe product will continue to be available for purchase by consumers, putting lives at risk,” Fleming said.
Jonathan Sargeant, the manager of codes and standards for the CSST manufacturer OmegaFlex, said the current 4.5-coulomb requirement is “based on rigorous lightning testing and forensic analysis of perforated CSST.”
“Without a test procedure, the 36-coulomb number is meaningless,” he said.
William Castelli, speaking on behalf of Ward Manufacturing, said that players in the industry are “constantly evolving their products, making them safer.”
Instead of adopting the 36-coulomb requirement, Castelli argued, Maryland should pursue an outright ban on non-arc-resistant CSST, which some manufacturers have already begun to phase out on their own.
The 2022 Flynn and Laird Act stopped short of banning the sale, distribution and transfer of non-arc-resistant CSST. It also did not include any penalties for people who use the material improperly.
In an interview after the bill hearing on Thursday, Lewis Young agreed that the loophole in the 2022 law should be closed and said there was room for compromise on the precise number of coulombs CSST sold, transferred and distributed in Maryland should be required to withstand.
She floated the idea of reducing the requirement to 24 coulombs — the upper end of the average charge delivered by a lightning strike and “a heck of a lot better” than the industry standard of 4.5 coulombs.
The Senate Committee on Education, Energy and the Environment has yet to vote on SB175. If the bill gets a favorable report from the committee, it would advance to the Senate floor for a second reading followed by a final vote.
A cross-filed bill sponsored by Del. Dana Stein, HB222, has also yet to make it out of committee. Stein was also a sponsor of the 2024 version of the bill and of the 2022 Flynn and Laird Act.
Lewis Young was optimistic on Thursday about the Senate committee’s appetite for heightened safety standards on CSST and said it was still early enough in the legislative session to make progress on the issue.
“We need to find a way to have the product actually meet the threat,” she said.
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