ATLANTA -- Preventing firefighter injuries is a hot topic all over the country and fire service leaders heard strategies from risk management experts during a lecture Thursday at Fire-Rescue International (FRI), the International Association of Fire Chiefs’ annual conference.
Lead by Gerald Poplin, an epidemiology doctoral candidate at the University of Arizona, and Ed Nied, the deputy chief of operations with the Tucson (Ariz.) Fire Department, nearly a hundred fire chiefs and officers from around the country listened to tips on how to keep firefighters safe not only on the scene, but at the station and while exercising.
"I think we all agree that safety is our number one concern," Nied said. "...And that has to be a bottom-up approach. The workers have to be involved with their own destinies."
The Tucson Fire Department, the University of Arizona and JohnHopkinsUniversity have partnered in a $1.3 million, four-year, grant-funded study of the nearly 750 firefighters in Tucson.
The idea was to develop a matrix that Tucson and fire departments around the country could use to manage risk and identify areas where injuries are happening.
In Tucson, Poplin said significant injuries happen in three areas: physical exercise, which accounted for 33 percent of those hurt; incidents involving patient transport at 16 percent; and fireground operations at 12 percent.
Poplin said other departments may find different causes for significant injuries and his point is that each department has to study the problems to be able to come up with solutions.
Nied said the fire service is accustomed to risk management and analysis, as it's done at virtually every fire scene. Tucson has codified it a bit more as they are looking for specific information about where, and more importantly, how injuries can be avoided.
As a practical matter, Nied said firefighters might find benefit to putting 150 pounds on an ambulance stretcher and doing sets with a partner as way to get physical exercise while mitigating the very kinds of injuries firefighters experience in patient transfers.
"Being able to lift 600 pounds on a bench press is very different than lifting 150 pounds on a stretcher," Nied said.
It's also important to document injuries as accurately and fully as possible to help identify the actual situations where firefighters are hurt, Poplin said.
"It's not enough to say, 'I got hurt transporting a patient,'" he said, noting that identifying the precise movement is far better when assessing risk.
In doing that with Tucson, Nied said his department found it was the lateral transfer of patients that was causing the most injuries. And that lead to the purchase of transfer boards that are being implemented in the department currently.
It wasn't the lifting that was causing the most harm, he said; rather it was the twisting motion of lifting up and over the edge of the bed and stretcher.
Fire departments should also develop a culture of safety from the top down, Nied said, noting that there are essentially four groups of firefighters in his department.
"We've got the top 10 percent that are peak performers," Nied said. "You can assign them to do anything and not really worry about them.”
Next is 20 percent who want to be like the top 10 percent, and will get there someday with more training and encouragement, Nied said.
"Then there's the 60 percent that doesn't quite know what to do," Nied said. "They're not sure who they are or which way they'll go." That's mostly because they're young and inexperienced, he said.
At the bottom is 10 percent that is automatically defensive and looking to blame someone, Nied said.
"We spend more time on that bottom 10 percent than any place else," Nied said. "We should be spending most of our time on the 60 percent or else the 10 percent will drag them down to their level and their attitudes."
While much of the lecture was filled with statistical analysis and charts, Nied did offer some practical advice on how he helps keep his firefighters safe.
For starters, Nied said most firefighters don't heed the yellow fire line tape thinking it's not for them.
So, Nied said his department and others in his area have started using red and white chevron tape to delineate true firefighter hazards and developed standard operating guidelines (SOGs) to keep his staff safe. The red and white chevron lines are used in collapse zones, or to mark off empty pools in yards, or to keep people out of areas with other obstructions in poorly lit areas.
"Now, we can say if you go across the red and white line, we're going to have some problems," he said.
Most firefighters don't want to be stuck in rehab and will often try to skirt the requirement, he said. To minimize that, Nied said the department has a written list of things that must happen on a laminated board that gets posted at rehab.
"This, this and this must happen before you can leave," he said. "And they are all posted right there for everyone to see, no questions."
A visible safety officer is another good tactic to keep firefighters safe, Nied said.
"If they see a guy with a safety officer vest on or a helmet on, they're going to act a little safer because they're afraid the guy's watching them," he said.
Too often, fire departments forget about other divisions in the fire department like the staff that maintains the apparatus, Nied said. It would be wise for departments to remember the folks working on the trucks are just as prone to mishaps and on-the-job injuries.
"They need to take care of themselves too," Nied said, adding that safety shouldn't be limited to commissioned firefighters out in the field.
Poplin reinforced that concept and added safety has to be part of the fire department's culture to be effective.
"When it comes to safety, get everyone involved," Poplin said.
