Abstract
The fire shelter is an integral part of wildland firefighting Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). There is growing concern, however, that firefighters may accept greater levels of risk while carrying them. Such concerns are consistent with Risk Homeostasis Theory, which postulates that behavior is regulated by an internal stabilizing process that balances target and perceived risk and the effects of safety interventions. When any one of the three components changes, the resulting disequilibrium is compensated for by changes in behavior. As a safety intervention, fire shelters may alter the equilibrium of this system producing a behavior change that negates any safety improvements it produced. Two experiments were conducted to assess how PPE affects the behavior of athletes and how fire shelters affect wildland firefighters’ perceptions of fire danger. In Experiment 1, 53% of participants demonstrated behavior that offset gains in safety produced by PPE. The results from Experiment 2 revealed that the presence of fire shelters significantly reduced perceived hazard levels associated with three different fire scenarios. Although neither experiment actually measured the behavior of firefighters, the combined results suggest that firefighters might not be immune to the effects of risk compensation.
Published Version
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
