www.thebackdraftmagazine.com | A Volunteer Fire Service Publication | Volume 5 | Issue 1 | Backdraft Magazine 5
Every year at our department's recruit academy, we ask
the same question: "What is killing firefighters?". To
anyone who's been in the fire service longer than a month
or two, the answer is obvious. Newcomers guess smoke
inhalation, flashovers, collapsing buildings, and are usually
surprised to hear about our LODD stats and what they
mean. Of course, knowing the problem and finding a
good solution are two entirely different things. It's easy to
identify that we need to keep our people in better shape;
what to do about it, especially in the volunteer world, is a
different matter entirely.
Career departments have some leverage; when your
people are going to be on a 24 hour shift, you can pencil
in a workout as often as you can get it into your schedule.
Members still need intrinsic motivation and dedication
to keep their diet in check and their exercise regimen up
when they aren't on duty, but it's a good step. Volunteer
departments have a slightly more difficult equation to
solve: how do you get your people to stay fit when you
control hardly any of their time?
As a company officer, I've watched my own station (and my
department as a whole) go through a series of variations on
this subject. I can't say what will work for you, but I can tell
you what I've observed in my own experience, and I can
remind you that ignoring a problem won't make it go away.
Right now the #1 killer of firefighters is cardiac events, and
that's something we have the power to affect if we chose
to. We have to be unwilling to accept the way things are
and commit to finding something that will get our people
on the right track towards protecting themselves, whatever
the circumstances are that you have to deal with in your
own department.
With that in mind, I've analyzed two main areas you can
focus on at your station to improve the acceptance and
effectiveness of your health and fitness program.
Equipment
When we think about how to improve fitness in a fire station,
work out equipment is the low-hanging fruit. Most stations
accumulate a hodge-podge of weights and such over time
naturally, each the offspring of some member's desire to
get back in shape. They have the impulse to shape up, whip
out a credit card, drop off their new weights at the station,
and that's the last those things ever move. Before we go
very far down this path, let's not forget that there's a lot that
can be done without any equipment whatsoever. Anyone
who's been in the military knows there's a lot of fitness to
be gained from body-weight exercises and calisthenics, it's
just a matter of motivation and information.
However, having the equipment people want to work out
the way that they prefer can be of great motivational help
on it's own. A jump rope, set of free weights, and a bench
is a fairly inexpensive investment and can give your people
the jump start they need to start taking fitness in the station
seriously. Full exercise machines with cabled weights and
such are safer than free weights for the inexperienced,
but also cost more and take up more space. The best way
to preserve the safety of the people using the workout
equipment is to pair it with good information on making
use of it.
Another problem to consider is the facilities at your fire
house. Many stations lack a workout room or similar
dedicated area. This means that any workout equipment
you get is either going in the truck bay or in the living space.
Both are less than ideal; the bay is typically your highest
exposure area for diesel exhaust, and the living quarters
are tough to use to their full potential when someone is
conducting a workout in the living room (an especially
tough situation for departments who use a residency
program).
At my station, we've found a great way to get access to good
equipment without sacrificing space at our small station.
We have a local 24 hour gym that uses keyfobs for access
that's in our first due area. I made an appointment with their
manager, introduced myself as the commanding officer of
the fire station down the street and explained our issues
with fitness in the fire service and the cramped facilities
at our station. Given that we have 20+ station members,
but only around three at the station at any given time, I
asked if there was a way they could accommodate a daily
load of 3 people at a time without charging each member
for a full membership to a gym they would only be using
when doing station standby. The facility graciously agreed
to sign the whole station up for a single family membership
(roughly $70/month, which the station members split
amongst themselves) with 3 keyfobs, as long as we agreed
FIT FOR DUTY
By Ethan Vizitei