Frequency, Intensity, Time And Type Of Tasks Performed During Wildfire Suppression

Matthew Phillips

doi:10.4172/2329-6879.1000199

Abstract

Objective: To quantify the frequency, intensity, duration, and type of tasks performed by Australian rural fire crews when suppressing wildfires. Methods: Twenty-eight Australian rural firefighters worked across four, six-hour shifts fighting to curtail the spread of wildfire. Each firefighter wore a heart rate monitor and personal global positioning system (GPS) unit and was followed by a researcher filming their work activity. Video footage of each firefighter was synchronized with their heart rate and GPS data to quantify the frequency, intensity and duration of individual fireground tasks. Fireground tasks were isolated using a previously conducted job task analysis. Results: Firefighters performed 32 distinct fireground tasks. Task frequencies ranged from once to 103 times per six-hour shift. Individual tasks lasted 4 ± 2 s to 461 ± 387 s, were performed at speeds ranging from 0.12 ± 0.08 m•s-1 to 0.79 ± 0.40 m•s-1 and elicited mean heart rates that ranged between 97 ± 16 beats•min-1 (55.7 ± 8.7 percentage of age-predicted maximum heart rate (HRmax)) and 157 ± 15 beats•min-1 (86.2 ± 10.8%HRmax). Conclusion: Fireground tasks were, generally speaking, shorter, slower, and elicited lower heart rates than equivalent tasks previously simulated and reported in the literature. The differences between naturally occurring and simulated tasks question the value of isolated task simulations for conducting physical demands analyses en-route to developing job-specific fitness tests.

Highlights

Worldwide, firefighters protect urban and rural communities against fire
Individual tasks lasted 4 ± 2 s to 461 ± 387 s, were performed at speeds ranging from 0.12 ± 0.08 m·s-1 to 0.79 ± 0.40 m·s-1 and elicited mean heart rates that ranged between 97 ± 16 beats·min-1 (55.7 ± 8.7 percentage of age-predicted maximum heart rate (HRmax)) and 157 ± 15 beats·min-1 (86.2 ± 10.8%HRmax)
The differences between naturally occurring and simulated tasks question the value of isolated task simulations for conducting physical demands analyses en-route to developing job-specific fitness tests

Summary

Introduction

Firefighters protect urban and rural communities against fire To support this fundamental civil service, researchers have spent the past 40 years quantifying, and where possible, mitigating the risks to firefighters’ health and safety. Researchers have used a range of approaches to capture firefighters’ task demands These methods include; subjective job task analyses [1,2], physiological and (to a much lesser extent) biomechanical analysis of isolated firefighting tasks [3,4,5,6,7]. Bos et al [8] used the task recording and analysis on computer (TRAC; [21]) method together with wireless heart rate monitoring to quantify the frequency and duration of the physical tasks performed by Dutch urban firefighting during a 24-hr shift.

Methods

Results

Conclusion