The effect of prescribed fluid consumption on physiology and work behavior of wildfire fighters

Firefighters’ Physical Activity across Multiple Shifts of Planned Burn Work

“…This contrasts the current study where no such observations were noted. Interestingly, despite the differences in analytical approaches, the within-shift findings are consistent with the previous wildfire literature [11,12]. Overall, these findings suggest that firefighters will adopt self-pacing strategies that allow them to sustain their physical activity and SED across the shift [32].…”

“…Taken together, these findings suggest that firefighters may engage in more physical activity during planned burns compared with wildfires, which is somewhat surprising given the contrasting contexts (i.e., routine operations vs. emergency situations). Differences in monitoring approaches may explain these contrasting findings, which include the lack of non-wear criteria in previous studies (which can result in an overestimation of SED [29]), wear location (chest, jacket pocket, wrist [11,12,14,19]), and the definition of MPA [17]. However, it is also possible that higher activity levels observed during planned burns reflect a different task emphasis across a shift.…”

“…Self-reported shift start and end times were used to determine each planned burn shift for the between-shift analysis. For the within-shift analysis, shifts were divided into 2-h periods in accordance with previous firefighting research [11,12]. …”

“…Regardless of the approach, mixed findings have been reported in the literature to date. For example, several studies have reported no differences in activity levels between shifts or between 2-h periods, suggesting that firefighters pace themselves to ensure operations are completed [7,11,12]. In contrast, others have reported that physical activity levels are higher during the first wildfire shift (or 2-h period within-shift) and decrease over time [13,14].…”

Effect of heat on firefighters' work performance and physiology

“…The work to rest ratios that made up each two-hour circuit were designed to mimic actual fireground work (Aisbett and Nichols, 2007;Cuddy et al, 2007;Raines et al, 2012), and the physical tasks to directly simulate the movements and fitness components of fire suppression in the field (Phillips et al, 2011(Phillips et al, , 2012. Wildland firefighters in the field spend 51-66% of their shift in the sedentary activity range (Cuddy et al, 2007;Raines et al, 2013). For each 2-hour circuit in the current protocol, 50 mins were spent intermittently working and 70 min were spent resting (including physiological and cognitive testing), which equates to spending 58% of the time in the sedentary range.…”