Firefighter Health And Safety - Brad Aisbett

Lesson 2:

We are good at managing the fire, but not good at managing ourselves

Firefighter Health & Safety

Fatigue

Fitness

Hydration

Cardiovascular Health

Manage your fatigue

21 hours awake?

·05

Manage your hydration

Why?

↑

decisionmaking↓

productivity↓

Risk of collapse↑

Dehydration

Dehydration

Dehydration

12 hr+

Dehydration

3 studies!

3 studies!

Firefighters arrive dehydrated

3 studies!

Firefighters leave dehydrated

3 studies!

Firefighting causes dehydration

3 studies!

Firefighting causes dehydration

Manage your hydration

Manage your fitness

Why?

Less fit firefighters get injured more often

Injured firefighters ↓ workforce

Injured firefighters ↑ compen$ation

Fit for duty?

What are the critical tasks?

Operationally Important

Operationally Important

Physically demanding

Operationally Important

Physically demanding

Frequent

Hosework

Manual tool work

What are the dominant actions?

%

How much of your shift is physically

demanding?

15%

Phys

ical

Dem

and

Heart Attack

PHYSICAL CAPABILITY

Manage your cardiovascular health

Who’s at risk?

≥ 45 yr

≥ 45 yr

≥ 45 yr

≥ 45 yr

Manage your…

Manage your…research

What are we doing?Dehydration on the fireground

Cardiovascular health assessments

Fit for duty testing & validation