Rehab truck helps Va. firefighters regain their cool

By Kristin Davis
The Virginian-Pilot

CHESAPEAKE, Va. — It was over 100 degrees June 24, and that was before the firefighters had even put on their Nomex suits to combat a fire on a rooftop.

When the crew had all it could take, another took its place. The heat-weary firefighters retreated into a new, shiny red truck where bottled water floated on melting ice and three big overhead vents blasted cold air.

It looks like a fire truck at first glance, but it's a rehab truck built for what the name implies: A place for them to check vital signs, cool down and rehydrate before returning to the scene.

The Chesapeake Fire Department rolled out the $440,000 vehicle in June; sooner than planned, just like the recent heat wave.

"We knew conditions were extreme," Lt. Jerry Bohn said.

The new vehicle can seat up to a dozen firefighters on benches that stretch across the 24-foot-long interior.

It replaces an out-of-service medic unit that had been converted for the same purpose, Bohn said. That one could fit three to four people at a time, and it lacked a heating, ventilation and air-conditioning unit, he said.

The Fire Department squirreled away money for five years to pay for it , which is unique to Hampton Roads, Capt. Mike Thibeault said. Mutual aid agreements with each of the region's cities make the truck available to other departments; it sheltered Suffolk firefighters who battled an interior warehouse fire on June 23 .

Chesapeake firefighters spent more than five hours in the afternoon sun battling that roof fire on Military Highway.

The uniform: Bunker pants and lined coats over T-shirts and pants, gloves and helmets, air masks and flash hoods, all topped with an air tank if the blaze takes them inside.

It weighs about 60 pounds all told, Bohn said. "It's like a little oven inside. You're perspiring but it can't go anywhere."

The "little oven" can reach 140 degrees and push body temperature to 100.

"Thermal stress," frostbite and heat exhaustion, accounted for about 2,900 firefighter injuries in 2008, more than smoke inhalation and slightly less than burns, according to the National Fire Protection Association.

"It's a huge step forward in firefighter safety to be able to rehab them before we send them back in," Thibeault said.