Beyond the fireground: injuries in the fire service

Abstract

Background Although firefighting and emergency medical services are high-risk professions, few studies have identified the aetiology of injury in the fire service beyond the fireground. Methods Data were collected for work-related injuries in a medium-sized metropolitan fire department. In a descriptive study, the factors explored included the nature of injury, agent, mechanism, body location, environment, abbreviated injury scale (AIS), functional capacity index (FCI) and lost time status. Results From 2004 to 2009, the annual injury incidence rate averaged 17.7 per 100 employees. One-third of all injuries (32.9%) resulted from physical exercise activities, while patient transport, training drills and fireground operations resulted in 16.9%, 11.1% and 10.2% of injuries, respectively. For all job operations, sprains and strains were the most prevalent type of injury (40.2-85.2%), followed by contusions and lacerations (7.7-26.1%). The third most common injury was related to the conventional hazards of the individual job operation. Most injuries (n=862, 95.6%) were minor in severity, while 4.3% of injuries were classified as having some impedance of normal function (FCI 3). Moderate injuries (AIS 2) were infrequent, but comprised a greater proportion of fireground injuries (8.7%) than the other activities (1.0-4.1%); however, lost time injuries were more frequent for patient transport (46.1%) than other operations (22.0-29.1%). Conclusions Physical exercise, patient transport and training activities were responsible for a greater percentage of injuries than fireground operations. Focused efforts to improve the characterisation of risks during these more diverse set of work processes should help guide the development of salient strategies for injury prevention.

24‐hour work shifts, sedentary work, and obesity in male firefighters

“…About 1.2 million firefighters are among the occupational groups with high obesity prevalence in the US [Caban et al, 2005;Choi et al, 2011;Haddock et al, 2011;Gu et al, 2014] and are at high risk of on-duty cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality [Kales et al, 2007;Geibe et al, 2008]. At the same time, they are also at higher risk for workrelated injuries [Poplin et al, 2012;Jahnke et al, 2013] also associated with obesity or aerobic fitness level [Kuehl et al, 2012;Jahnke et al, 2013;Poplin et al, 2014].…”

Age-related changes in upper body strength and lower limb power of professional Italian firefighters

“…Examining American firefighters, Karter and Molis [10] have shown that strains, sprains and muscular pain accounted for the largest portion of injuries (51.4 %), whereas Poplin et al [11] found that 32.9 % of injuries were due to physical exercise, followed by patient transport (16.9 %), training drills (11.1 %) and fire ground operations (10.2 %). An analysis of the injury incidence by age groups [12] has revealed the lowest and less frequent values among firefighters aged 30-39 and the highest among those aged more than 50 years, whereas during compulsory physical training accidents were less frequent in the 40-49 age groups than others (age 20-29 and 50-59 years).…”

Comparison of body mass index with waist circumference and skinfold-based percent body fat in firefighters: adiposity classification and associations with cardiovascular disease risk factors

“…Male firefighters are among the top three occupational groups with the highest obesity prevalence in the USA (Caban et al 2005;Choi et al 2011;Haddock et al 2011). As a result, overweight and obesity is an important occupational health issue to be urgently addressed for the 1.1 million US firefighters ) who are at high risk of on-duty cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality (Geibe et al 2008;Kales et al 2007) and musculoskeletal injuries Poplin et al 2012). …”