Keep Alert to Avoid Being Part of the Injury Statistics
The Volunteers Corner
The latest fire fighter injury statistics compiled by the IAFF show that fire fighters in the 896 reporting municipalities had a 42.4 percent chance of being injured in 1978. There are no statistics that show the injury rate among volunteer fire fighters throughout the nation.
Every injury is one too many and in the nation’s most dangerous type of work—with an accidental death rate in 1978 of 67 deaths per 1000 workers—safety must be a continuous, personal concern of every fire fighter. We commonly regard size-up as the responsibility of officers. However, every fire fighter should assume the responsibility of sizing up the safety conditions of the area where he is working—not just for his own safety, but also for the safety of his buddies.
The first safety rule is that every fire fighter should wear full turnout gear—helmet, coat, boots, and bunker pants when appropriate—while riding the apparatus. The lAF’F statistics show that in 1978, 3057 injuries were received while the apparatus was responding or returning to quarters. While it is not designed for highway accident protection, turnout gear increases personal safety in a vehicle accident. Men have survived being tossed from the apparatus because they wore a helmet, for example.
Breathing apparatus: By now, it should be obvious that self-contained breathing apparatus should be worn into every structural fire. However, 20 percent of the injuries reported to the IAFF were the result of inhaling toxic gases. While we tend to become concerned about the increased presence of plastics that give off lethal gases while burning, we seem to be unaware of the fact that carbon monoxide, which has been around ever since there has been fire, is the most frequent killer gas.
In monitoring the CO level in the blood of Baltimore fire fighters several years ago, physicians at The Johns Hopkins University discovered that the CO levels of fire fighters who used breathing apparatus only part of the time were not much lower than the CO levels erf those who did not use breathing apparatus at all. Their deduction was that when enough smoke had cleared to make breathing comfortable without breathing apparatus during overhaul and salvage work, there was still enough CO present to warrant continued use of breathing apparatus.
While the trend is to use gloves with breathing apparatus, that still remains an issue that can be debated all night in some areas. Personally, I like the ability to monitor the intensity and direction of the heat source that bare hands give me while I am wearing breathing apparatus. What isn’t debatable is the need to wear gloves during overhaul operations. At 17 percent, cuts rank as the second most frequent injury in the IAFF survey.
Overhaul hazards: During a fire attack, we recognize the existence of both identified and unidentified hazards, and we remain alert. Then the fire is knocked down—sometimes after laborious work—and we tend to relax during overhaul. Unfortunately, the very act of overhauling develops such hazards as falling structural material pulled loose in the search for hidden fire, upturned nails in fallen boards, debris to trip over and broken glass. Full turnout gear, including gloves, can avert the cuts and abrasions that add to injury totals.
Because it is easier, fire fighters too often pull ceilings towards themselves instead of using pike poles so that the ceiling material falls away from them. Either way, face or eye shields should be over your face while pulling ceilings or other structural material.
When pulling loose such things as boards, framing lumber and ceiling molding that can finally spring into the air and injure someone, it is best to pull with a tool until one end of the material is within reach. Then another fire fighter with gloved hands, can pull the material free and control its landing spot as the tool may now be used to pry instead of pull.
When opening up, take a moment to think which way a structural member being pulled or pried will spring loose or fall, and then work so as to avoid an injury.
Strains and sprains: The pulling and prying involved in overhaul accounts for a sizable portion of the strains and sprains sustained by fire fighters—the category of injuries that was found by the IAFF survey to be most prevalent, 35 percent of all injuries. The company officer can prevent some of these injuries by watching his men and correcting bad working habits, but the key to prevention of strains and sprains rests in the fire fighters themselves monitoring working conditions and the way they handle their arms, legs and backs under these working conditions.
Remember, by the time you get into overhaul, the fire is under control and time is no longer a premium item. You now have time to ask for assistance in handling a strenuous task and you have time to get the most advantageous equipment to make the job easier. Ask yourself, is it worth a sprain to save a few minutes that don’t make any difference in the final result?
Because most fires are extinguished with a single line with only a few men actually working, we tend to overlook the need to keep track of where everyone is working at an extensive fire. It is the responsibility of every company officer to know where all his men are, and it is the responsibility of every chief officer to know where the companies under his command are operating. You’ll need this knowledge when a collapse occurs or when a toxic gas or exhaustion overcomes fire fighters.
