ATLANTA — A fire chief who oversaw a pioneering project to improve the fitness of his firefighters was honored at Fire-Rescue International, Thursday.
Carl Plaugher launched the wellness program shortly after joining Orange County (Fla.) Fire Rescue Department about six years ago.
With the help of Fire Act Grant funds, the department purchased a mobile fitness evaluation unit vehicle manned by certified fitness trainers and bought exercise equipment for stations.
Staff on the unit check firefighters' heart rates, strength, flexibility and endurance.
Plaugher was given the 2007 Fire Service Award for Excellence at FRI for his efforts.
His program, along with annual physicals and medical monitoring overseen by the department's wellness bureau, has reduced workers' compensation claims and costs by 63 percent.
Other candidates nominated for the award were:
• Copperas Cover (Texas) Fire Department — Mentoring Industrious Minds & Educating Students (MIMES) Program: The week-long summer program targets seventh-graders, exposes students to fire and EMS as a career and teaches them how academics such as math and science apply in the working world, long after junior high.
• Fresno (Calif.) Fire Department — Fresno Fire Department Outreach & Education: The Fresno City Fire Department has successfully embarked on a strategic community outreach and public education campaign. The department’s goal is to educate the community as a whole via public service announcements, innovative signage and local media.
• Metropolitan Fire & Emergency Services Board, Melbourne, Australia — Reflective Community Art on Fire Trucks: Artwork that has significant cultural meaning to the Aboriginal and Vietnamese communities, together with fire-safety messages reflecting a fire theme, was applied to the sides of three MFB primary-response pumpers.
• North Richland Hills (Texas) Fire Department — North Richland Hills Juvenile Fire Setter Intervention Program: The program was implemented to educate and, when possible, to intervene to modify the behavior of low-risk first-offender juveniles involved in fire setting and fire play.
• Tuscaloosa (Ala.) Fire & Rescue Service — Project Fire & Injury Reduction Education (FIRE): The project is an innovative public-education plan using social-marketing techniques to motivate at-risk citizens to change their behavior. The plan uses research to identify target audiences and uses customized methods to reach them.
• Wilson (N.C.) Fire/Rescue Services — Fire Inspection Resource Exercise Simulation (FIRES): The project features virtual-reality technology and aims to improve fire departments’ abilities to save the lives of children, the elderly and firefighters the by promoting effectiveness of fire inspections and building-code enforcement programs.
