The idea seems simple enough: If you want to cool down, dunk yourself in water.
Two firefighters from Canada and one from New York tweaked that concept this year when they patented a chair that has water troughs for arms.
Submerging firefighters' hands and arms in water is supposed to reduce their core body temperatures, helping them avoid heat stroke and get back to work faster, said Fire Department of New York Battalion Chief Gerry Tracy, one of the patent holders. A tub would be best, but fold-up chairs are a lot more practical, he said.
South Florida firefighters have to work in hot and humid conditions year-round, so it is even more important for departments here to find effective ways to protect their people. The Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue department got four of the $70 chairs last week and plans to test them during the next six months.
Late last week, Bob Brown of the Palm Beach Community College Fire Academy and Davie Fire Chief Don DiPetrillo came to Fort Lauderdale to see a demonstration. DiPetrillo, who works closely with trainers for the Miami Dolphins because they practice in Davie, said they might be interested in getting the chairs for their players, as well.
"Many fire departments are doing nothing" to help firefighters cool down, Tracy said. "Others give them liquids or use misty fans. Misty fans work, but not if you're in an area with any humidity. ... When firefighters immerse their forearms and hands, within 5 to 10 minutes their core temperatures come back down to normal. It can work in 100 percent humidity."
Fort Lauderdale Division Chief Stephen McInerny had three firefighters put Tracy's words to the test.
Wearing full bunker gear, they climbed up and down a 105-foot ladder in the middle of an asphalt parking lot at 11 a.m. Their temperatures were measured before they started, when they got off the ladder and every five minutes once they sat in the chairs.
None of their body temperatures returned to normal after five minutes even though they did not exert themselves nearly as much as they would if they were fighting a fire. It took 15 minutes to get them all back to normal, but the firefighters said they liked the feeling of the cool water on their hot skin.
EMS Battalion Chief David DiPetrillo said the chairs might work well in combination with other methods the department already uses, including getting the firefighters' gear off, sitting them in shade, giving them water and Gatorade, putting cold towels on their heads and turning a fan on them.
"I want to do a side-by-side comparison," he said. "Put one person in the chair, one person not in the chair, and see who cools down first."
Battalion Chief Manny Catani, who joined the fire department in 1975, just stood back and watched. He remembers when there was no such thing as "firefighter rehab."
"Seems to me, the ones who got any rehabilitation were the ones who collapsed and went to the hospital," he said. "For the rest of us, it was a contest to see how many [air] bottles you could go through. If you got a drink on the fire ground, it was because you were drinking out of the hose."
