Con la presente investigación se busca principalmente establecer un perfil de ansiedad, estrés y estados de ánimo del Personal Especialista en Extinción de Incendios Forestales (PEEIF) o bomberos forestales tanto a nivel general como en situaciones de emergencia. La muestra se compuso de 24 sujetos a los que se administró una batería de cuestionarios en tres ocasiones (sin emergencia, primer a emergencia y última emergencia), compuesta por un cuestionario sociodemográfico adhoc, el Perfil de Estados de Ánimo (POMS); y el Inventario de ansiedad estado-rasgo (STAI- E/R), realizando un análisis descriptivo y comparativo a través de la prueba t-student y comparaciones múltiples con Anova de medidas repetidas. Se observó que los miembros PEEIF, a nivel general, tenían valores bajos de ansiedad estado, ansiedad rasgo, tensión, depresión, cólera, fatiga y confusión, mientras que el vigor fue elevado. En situaciones de emergencia, los valores se vieron modificados en su totalidad, debido a la fuente de estrés que supone. Se demuestra que el trabajo de extinción de incendios forestales se caracteriza por tener efectos negativos a nivel emocional sobre sus profesionales, mediados por la experiencia, cargo y condiciones familiares. Abstract: The present research mainly seeks to establish a profile of anxiety, stress and moods of the Forest Fire Extinction Specialist Personnel (PEEIF) or wildland firefighters both at a general level and in emergency situations. The sample was made up of 24 subjects who were administered a battery of questionnaires on three occasions (no emergency, first emergency and last emergency), composed of an ad-hoc sociodemographic questionnaire, the Profile of Mood States (POMS); and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-E / R), carrying out a descriptive and comparative analysis through the bat-student test and multiple comparisons with repeated measures Anova. It was observed that the PEEIF members, at a general level, had low values ​​of state anxiety, trait anxiety, tension, depression, anger, fatigue and confusion, while vigor was high. In emergency situations, the values ​​were modified in their entirety, due to the source of stress involved. It is shown that forest fire extinguishing work is characterized by having negative emotional effects on its professionals, mediated by experience, position and family conditions.

Wildland firefighters (WFF) face a set of specific work-related factors that directly affect their physical and cognitive abilities and compromise their health and safety. The working conditions include hard physical work and environmental conditions that combine high temperatures and high radiant heat. Such environments make using personal protective equipment (PPE) mandatory to protect them from risks. This fact restricts heat removal and adds extra weight, increasing thermal strain and the risk of heat-related illnesses on WFF. Since the number of females WFF has increased, it is necessary to study the repercussions of heat stress on this group. To date, it is not yet well-known whether sex-related differences in thermoregulation will be relevant when the individuals are wearing PPE and performing high physical effort in a hot environment. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the physiological response when performing moderate to high-intensity effort in a hot-dry environment while wearing PPE according to sex. Twenty WFF 10 females [23.9 ± 3.2 yr, 163.8 ± 3.4 cm and 62.7 ± 9.1 kg] and 10 males [31.9 ± 6.6 yr, 178.8 ± 5.8 cm and 73.9 ± 7.7 kg]) performed a 125 min treadmill test in a controlled ambient (30 ºC and 30% relative humidity). The protocol consisted of two exercise stages where WFF performed different continuous and variable exercise bouts in order to mimic the effort performed during real deployments. Participants wore the full standard PPE during the test. Oxygen uptake (VO2), heart rate (HR), core temperature (CT) and chest temperature (SkT) were monitored throughout the test. HR and CT were used to calculate the physiological strain index (PSI). Differences in body mass pre-post trials corrected for fluid intake were used to calculate sweat production (SwP), sweating rate (SwR), and evaporative efficiency (EE). Differences (p < 0.05) between females and males were found in %VO2max (62.5 ± 7.4 vs 55.3 ± 5.), HR (155 ± 10 vs 134 ± 14 beats·min–1), % of maximal HR (81.3 ± 3.5 vs 42.3 ± 6.5), CT (38.0 ± 10 vs 37.7 ± 0.33 ºC), SkT (36.0 ± 0.6 vs 35.3 ± 0.6 ºC) and PSI (4.1 ± 0.5 vs 3.5 ± 0.6). Even though SwR was higher (p < 0.05) for male participants (1001.5 ± 268.3 ml) compared to females (647.5 ± 145.9 ml), females had higher EE (32.9 ± 4.6 vs 16.7 ± 6.2 %). In conclusion, performing high-intensity exercise in hot-dry conditions while wearing PPE leads to a higher thermal and cardiovascular load for female WFF, making them more susceptible to heat illness. These results could be linked to lower aerobic fitness, sweating rate, and hormonal aspects that increased the thermal burden.