By Ron Barnett
USA Today
GREENVILLE, S.C. — They charge into burning buildings, fight their way through noxious black smoke and blistering heat, and risk their lives to save others. But the biggest danger firefighters face isn’t fire or smoke or collapsing structures.
It’s heart attacks.
The National Volunteer Fire Council and fire departments across the USA are joining forces to try to change that. The council mailed out heart health information this month to all of the nation’s 30,000 fire departments and issued a fitness challenge online. This followed a June alert from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health urging fire departments to develop fitness programs and follow medical screening guidelines.
“Firefighters do have long periods of downtime, and that’s followed by a sudden jolt when the alarm goes off,” council spokeswoman Kimberly Ettinger said. “They have to right away get in gear, and their adrenaline goes up. That’s a lot of strain even for people who are in shape.”
Cardiac failure is the No. 1 killer of firefighters, accounting for close to half of the line-of-duty deaths in the past four years, according to the U.S. Fire Administration. A study released in March by the Harvard School of Public Health showed that firefighters on active duty face a heart attack risk up to 100 times greater than that of workers with non-emergency roles.
Departments across the USA are taking measures to address this issue:
*In Washington state, firefighter Tom Corrigan of the Everett Fire Department is using weights developed by the Russian military called kettle bells to build strength for such tasks as pulling hoses and swinging an ax, while promoting cardiovascular health. He demonstrated his techniques at a June symposium in Phoenix attended by 400 firefighters.
*The Phoenix Fire Department’s wellness director, Capt. Mike Ong, says his department categorizes firefighters according to four fitness levels based on such factors as body fat, blood pressure, pulmonary function, blood sugar and cardiac health. Those on the lowest fitness level are deemed not fit for duty.
*The Pelham-Batesville Fire Department in South Carolina is stepping up its fitness programs to try to avoid another heart attack like the one that killed 38-year-old Assistant Chief Tom Kickler in 2002. Kickler, who was thought to be in good condition, died a few hours after fighting a fire near his home on a day when he had called in sick. Each quarter, the Pelham-Batesville firefighters take a test that includes running, push-ups, sit-ups and a flexibility test.
“What I tell these guys when they get in trouble is, ‘I would rather fire you for your health than to go tell your wife or your mother that you’re laying out here with a heart attack, dead,’” Chief Phill Jolley said.
The department contracts with the North Greenville Fitness & Cardiac Rehabilitation Clinic, which performs stress tests and designs individualized fitness programs. Director Charles Turner does the same for more than 500 fire departments in 12 states.
*In Denver, the Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co. put up $50,000 in March to help pay for heart scans for the city’s more than 900 firefighters, according to Laura Douglas, executive director of the Friends of the Denver Fire Department, a non-profit support group.
*The Orange County Fire Authority in Irvine, Calif., is conducting research of its own to try to find out what factors may underlie the high heart attack rate among firefighters. In the study, 125 firefighters swallow a tiny transmitting device and go into a fire simulator in which researchers can measure the temperature in the building and internal body temperatures, Fire Capt. Stephen Miller said.
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