Heat Exhaustion & The Fireground

[x635 4,066]

Just wondering what departments do to handle heat exhaustion, especially during heat waves?

Do you carry cold bottled water on your apparatus? Do you call Bee-Line to use one of their buses as a "cooling center"? Do you automatically send EMS w/ ALS if not already on the card?

And here's an oddball one- do you staff more firefighters so that the rotation and work can be spread out over multiple guys, with each one getting enough time to rest and rehydrate?

[PVFD233 68]

Coolers w/Water and Ice. Of course Rescue Squad comes in a big way at such incident. As for rest each firefighter is instructed to go to "rehab" where they rest and get checked by a EMT.

[turk182 37]

And here's an oddball one- do you staff more firefighters so that the rotation and work can be spread out over multiple guys, with each one getting enough time to rest and rehydrate?

We have had this conversation with the Chiefs nothing every came of it though. It is standard practice to bring in extra manpower for winter stroms why not summer heat ?

[huzzie59 75]

As one persons view of the Hackley School fire in Tarrytown last week our department "did it right". There was only one firefighter transported due to the heat.

The following actions were performed to combat heat related problems:

Tarrytown has a "Disaster Team" that activates during every working fire. They "tend to" the firefighters and assist with water, food, etc. They were on scene within a 1/2 hour of the first alarm.

TFD's Utility truck carrys a stock of water and gatorade. And many of the trucks carry some sully of water.

Tarrytown VAC was dispatched along with the first alarm and set up a rehab area.

After the first few hours, a number of our local village officials started to arrive and ask what they could do. Do to the size of the operation more resources were needed. They arrainged for food and water from local stores. One village trustee went to the Tarrytown Marriot and came back with his SUV loaded with donated towels. These towels were soaked in ice water and given to everyone who wanted one.

A BeeLine bus was brought to the scene for an air-conditioned rehab area.

And most importantly, the officer's in charge required all firefigthers to be rotated in and out of assignments. As important to putting out the fire was to the chiefs, the health of all involved was more important. As can be seen in the other thread, many mutual aid companies responded. A good number of them strickly for manower.

[Guest alsfirefighter]

Good topic and one that has taken some time to get into swing in the northeast (as with most change and ideas) is rehab. One thing is for sure, there is still a very wide gap in the provision of rehab, what is good vs. not so good or just plain out no good that is being done. I also find it interesting many of the conceptions of rehab...how in many posts on here firefighters refer to it as "rehab" as if it weren't the actual thing.

I actually just finished a presentation I will be peforming for an EMS agency I work in conjunction with as an ALS provider and hope to get it delivered on a county level as well.

In regard to some of the other questions, I never did understand why many agencies bring extra personnel in for winter storms when most people actually stay home, and nothing during extreme heat when life goes on and call volume usually goes up. On a structural fire level personnel increases can be handled by adding additional alarms or requests for mutual aid. Going back to my rehab paragraph...proper, enforced rehab is the key to being able to deal with the heat and keep personnel in a safe operating condition.

Edited August 14, 2007 by alsfirefighter

[mmwolf65 1]

Where I work apparatus have jugs of water on board. On multiple alarms and also on request at other incidents, our contracted EMS provider responds with a Incident Support Unit that has water. ice. cold towels and other supplies. The regional transit authority will on request send an air conditioned bus. Our state Dept. of Fire Services also has a air conditioned Rehab Bus that will respond, however, the eta to our city is a bit extended.

[firemoose827 324]

Its funny you bring this topic up... I recently discovered something about my dept that realy concerns me. I have been unable to attend a lot of things in my dept for the past year due to the fact that I have a daughter ( who is turning one this month, 8/27!!!) I have just recently started to attend meetings and drills again and I have been told by other members that the dept no longer wants the squad to respond with the jugs of water and set up rehab any more... in fact, the ambulance isnt supposed to respond immediately to the scene any more. Now, the rig has to acknowledge the call and sit and wait for 15 minutes in case more firefighters show up and need a ride to the scene. When the rig gets there they are to no longer provide active rehab for the crews... just sit there and watch.

Im pissed off. Im one of the FEW level II firefighters, Haz-Mat Techs the dept has and my but wants to be rehabed. My father dropped of a heart attack at the age of 42 and had to be shocked and admin TPA to be revived. My entire family has some cardiac hx or another and there are firefighters dropping from cardiac arrest everywhere you look. Now, you add the extreme heat in the summer wearing full PPE ( some of us anyway) carrying 80 lbs of gear??? When I come out of the building I WANT someone handing me water, cooling me off, taking my BP, and checking on me. In summer temps everyone should be re-hydrating as often as possible and cooling off before returning to the scene... its just not worth dropping with a heat stroke or severe dehydration.

On the County level however we have become better... we just recently got a new Fire Coordinator and he is realy good about getting large amounts of manpower to the scene to rotate crews for rehab. We stock our rescue with a dorm size fridge filled with bottled water, and our ambulance USED to take 2 large coolers filled with gatorade or water to the scene and kept the rig running with the AC on for rehab purposes, but now we have to mill around the rescue and hope the ladies auxiliary shows up with something cold to drink.

Stay safe and hydrated

Moose

[Guest]

IN NEW ROCHELLE THEY BRING IN EXTRA TROOPS FROM NOON TO MIDNIGHT ON HOT DAYS, ALSO THEY HAVE WATER COOLERS AND ICE CRESTS AND THE AVAILABILITY TO ICE VESTS DESIGNED TO BE USED WITH WMD DRESS OUT. QUICK ACCESS TO COLD DRINKS AND COLD TOWELS.(THANKS TRANS CARE}

BY REMOVING THE STACKED TIPS ON THE DECK GUN AND REPLACING THEM WITH A ROCKWOOD NOZZLE,THEN INSERTING THE NAVY APPLICATOR A GREAT SHOWER IS FABRICATED OFF THE SIDE OF THE RIG.

ALSO EXTRA UNITS ABOVE WHAT WOULD NORMALLY BE NEEDED ARE SPECIAL CALLED TO PROVIDE RELIEF AND GET THE OPERATING FORCES OFF THE SCENE AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE,

IT IS A GOOD IDEA IF THE INCIDENT COMMANDER WEARS FULL PPE, SO IT REMINDS HIM OF WHAT THE TROOPS ARE GOING THROUGHT, AND HIS DECISION CAN BE MADE ACCORDINGLY

[Remember585 815]

There's a few things we try for to beat the heat.

On our "Working Fire Assignments," it calls for two ambulances (One of ours / one M/A), an ALS Fly-Car, Cortlandt VAC's Rehab unit and a Cascade (as well as other fire apparatus). Another nice benefit from our Mutual Aid is that the Buchanan Cascade Unit also carries bottled water (in a fridge) and if I'm not mistaken they have those chairs you can cool off in.

On our own rigs, we carry two cool-mist fans - one on the Truck and the other on the Rescue. The Rescue also has a small fridge which water is SUPPOST to be stored in.

Snotty - we've done the thing with the Navy Fog on our E119 - works great! I think Capt. Benz showed us it at WCFTC. Also, now I get why you have R4 available those hours (I was curious when I hear them come up on boxes).

Also, E119 has an exhaust fan with water-mist attachment which works well.

Lastly, we try to get the A/C units running on the apparatus for a place to cool down.

Other resources we have local to us include buses from the Montrose, Buchanan and Verplanck FDs.

**A note to all - getting County Buses during business hours is a lot quicker then in the off-hours. Have the IC (or Battalion) contact 60 Control and they will work on getting it for you.**