Theses and Dissertations

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Physiological strain of firefighters exposed to a live firefighting exercise
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2009) Barnes, Kyle Russell, author; Hickey, Matthew S., advisor; Israel, Richard Gay, advisor; Jones, Brian, committee member
The physiological demands of occupations such as live urban or wildland firefighting are an important determinant of occupational safety, and can inform decisions about employee recruitment, screening, and training. To this end, the present study describes the physiological strain which attends live burn exercises in an urban firefighter academy. Fourteen firefighters from the Northern Colorado Fire Consortium Fire Academy participated in this investigation. The firefighter cadets’ clinical characteristics were as follows (mean ± SD): age 28.8 ± 5.7 years; height 1.8 ± 0.1 m; mass 83.8 ± 12.9 kg; body mass index (BMI) 26.3 ± 3.0; maximal aerobic capacity 45.0 ± 4.4 ml/kg/min, 3.77 ± 0.6 L/min. Participants were studied during two live burn sessions separated by four days. The mean (± SD) duration of fire exposures was 9.6 ± 1.5 and 9.32 ± 2.6 minutes for day one and two, respectively. The pre-burn heart rates were 92.7 ± 18.0 bpm and 96.4 ± 13.8 bpm in days one and two, respectively. The mean pre-burn blood pressures were 117/68 ± 18.7/9.1 and 122/76 ± 11.0/8.9, respectively. The mean pre-burn blood lactate was 3.3 ± 1.9 mmol/L on day one and 2.7 ± 1.0 mmol/L on day two.