We're At It Again - A New Episode of "5-Alarm Task Force" on Firefighter Fitness!

We're  happy to let you know that we've completed and posted our third episode of "5-Alarm Task Force." On this podcast our guest are Dan Kerrigan and Jim Moss, authors of "Firefighter Functional Fitness." You've seen them on Twitter at @firefighterffit. 

These two firefighters were hurt by and tired of reading so many LODD notices and seeing that 40%-60% of those deaths were caused by preventable health issues! How could any firefighter who realizes he/she has a health problem, ignore it, just so they do not lose their firefighting privileges? However,  none of us are ever alone when we're on the job. If something was to happen to any one of us, we become the first, in a long line of dominoes, that begin to fall.

If you get sick on the fireground, it will effect your colleagues, as they will have to pick up your tasks that you cannot complete. They graduates up to your line officers and your chief officers. You are an important part of their plan to control and conquer this fire or rescue. Worse of all, the next domino to fall is your own family! Who will tell them what happened to you? Maybe you told your spouse or significant other about your health problem, but again, failed to do anything about it as you didn't want to appear as though you were "wussing" out on your duty!

Well Dan & Jim have written this book, not just to provide you with a few regular exercises, as if you were watching a Richard Simmons or Jane Fonda video! They provide you with a complete lifestyle change and include all the information you need, from working and eating at home to working and eating on the job.

Medical conditions such as hypertension (HTN - High Blood Pressure), cardiac arrhythmia, or diabetes, can be either overcome and/or controlled. I know of what I speak. For although I've been off the job for thirty years due to my injury, I went through over five years with HTN. Yet, with specific meds and exercise, I kicked its ass and have been off all blood pressure medication for over 7 years! Add this - a retired line officer from a department here in the South Florida area, has read Dan's & Jim's book and has lost over EIGHTY POUNDS!

You have no excuse other than continued denial . Give them a listen on our podcast at 5-Alarm Task Force , and see for yourself. If you're interested, their book is available through their website or on Amazon, both as a paperback and as a Kindle book.

Our podcast is brought to you by The Firehouse Tribune. Find them on twitter at @FHTribune or their webisite The Firehouse Tribune!

Coming up...we are proud to announce that our next guest will be Chief Dennis Rubin. Make you you tune in for that one!

One last note: We know that many of you check out our blog when you receive the posting alert via Twitter. It is very important for us to be able to show the numbers and that you like what you see. To that end, please, please, please, leave a brief message or comment after reading a post. Thank you very much for your understanding and participation.

Stay Safe and Let's Make Sure That Everyone Goes Home!

 

Are We Taking Two Steps Forward and One Step Back?

Have you ever thought about the meaning of the words in the title of today's post? No? Well, try it. Pick two points in your home, in the firehouse, anywhere you choose. Now, walk with your regular gait and time how long it takes to travel from point A to point B. Easy, right? Now, do it again, but for every two steps forward, take one step backward, and time your journey again. Not so easy, eh? What was the difference in your times? Now, imagine living through your entire day, all your tasks, all your errands doing the same thing. For every two steps forward, you must take one step back!

The August 2015 edition of Firehouse^® Magazine notes that seven firefighters died with the classification of LODD. Each and every one of these deaths was classified as an LODD. Not one was a fireground or apparatus/vehicular occurrence. The magazine also has an article about the NFPA’s latest report of LODD’s from 2014. All together, we lost sixty-four brothers in 2014. This made 2014 the third year in the last four where LODD’s were below sixty-five and it was a significant reductions from 2013 where we lost ninety-seven firefighters.

As good as that news is the problem lies in the fact that over half of the deaths in 2014 were caused by sudden cardiac/health events. This was the highest number of health-related LODD’s since 2008.

We have been on our Twitter account (@DalmatProd) for approximately six months now. And we have made firefighter health one of our top priority topics that we look for and write about. As a matter of fact, we are so concerned about this that the subject will play an important role in the television program that we are currently working to sell in Hollywood. Moreover, if you have read this blog before, you know how important it is to us and how often we write about it.

The question remains if we are doing enough to prevent these types of LODD’s. I have no doubt that each and every industry magazine addresses this issue from time to time. Many departments have taken the issue to heart (pardon the pun) and developed excellent fitness programs for their firefighters, both current and future. However, many of those departments are larger, urban and suburban companies that may have a fitness line item in their budget or perhaps, they applied for and received a SAFER grant specifically for this purpose.

Yet two key issues remain. The first is the difficulty in promoting this health initiative in smaller, more rural departments, most of them being volunteer departments. As it is, they are having a difficult enough time just recruiting and retaining volunteers. Now, we push this health initiative on them and they back off because they simply do not have the resources to do so.

The second issue is how do we “encourage” the firefighters, mostly on-call and volunteers, who have been members of their departments for several years or longer and over the course of time have gained significant weight or developed other health issues that could lead to a morbidity level? And what about officers and command staff, who sometimes feel that since they are not performing any physical exertion at calls, their health is not of concern and they should not have to abide by a department’s health standards.

The issue of firefighter health is well publicized; there is no doubt about that. And we have some of the best leaders in this country working their tails off to bring this message to the masses. So, the question remains how we raise the level of attention of our target audience?

As I thought about this very question, the proverbial light bulb went off. How bright it is, well, that’s for you to decide. Every fire department in this country is well aware of the NFPA, its purpose, its mandates, etc. While we all realize that some departments are financially unable to employ each NFPA mandate, they do try to do their best. Why? Because they know in their hearts and minds that the NFPA is working to keep firefighters as safe as possible. Whether it is the semaphores on apparatus, PPE, standards for SCBA, etc. they are looking out for the safety of every one of us and the citizens we protect.

What if we can find a way to create a union of the NFPA and either an existing organization or a new one, even a new sub-department of NFPA to carry this health message to the boots on the ground, so that they see it as the same way the majority see the other safety mandates from the NFPA. Perhaps if we can create a Committee of Firefighter Health & Wellness as an offshoot of the NFPA, our messages will stop falling on deaf ears. Or, at the least, find a larger audience.

However, I sincerely believe that this must come from us, the firefighters, current and former, the departments and our own organizations. I do not want to see governmental bureaucracy involved in this endeavor. We have the experience, we have the knowledge and we have the influence that we can put to work to save our lives.

The goal is simple: let’s give the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation the least amount of work to do. Let’s do our best to live by our motto: #EveryOneGoesHome.

 

How Much is 40% to a Firefighter?

This post that you will read here, encompasses an extremely important issue that many first responders, especially, firefighters, EMT/Paramedics and Police Officers, must be made to read!! "Why?" you ask. Because for the year 2012-2013, forty percent (40%) of the firefighters who died either during or subsequently to responding to and/or working at a major, physically exhausting call, did so as a result of a medical condition.

I approach this important issue from three levels. I was a volunteer firefighter at two departments, one in NC and one in NY from 1977-1981 until an injury took me out-of-service. I earned my EMT-I and II in NC and also worked for the county EMS there for eight months, before we moved up to NY. Finally, I spent twelve years as the administrator of a medical practice, where the doctor used me for "other" duties, as well.

Throughout the entire time and even til today, I have never stopped reading FireHouse Magazine. For many years, other than visiting firehouses wherever I went, the magazine was my key connection to the fire-rescue service. And every month, I would read the LODD dedications and wonder why...why were so many firefighters dying? Not just dying, but dying from what looked like conditions unrelated to the last call or calls they had been on. 

You see, I guess I was lucky. Because during my brief years of service, I did not experience a LODD either in my own or the surrounding departments. We had some close calls in both locales, but no fatalities.

On the other hand, I've never been considered "svelte," at least not since I was seven years old. I started packing on extra pounds at that age and yo-yo'd the rest of my life. I was the last kid chosen by the others to be on a team in neighborhood sports. I had the cheeks that all of my late aunts loved to pinch. Finally, in college, I started to drop some weight by playing softball with friends. 

I've now been married over forty years and my wife is a terrific cook and baker. So through most of those 40 years, my weight has fluctuated, but it was always my decision to lose weight. I never waited for my doctor to tell me. I knew it myself when it was tough to button a pair of pants or my suit jackets were getting too tight.When that happened, I'd go "back on the wagon," and drop 15-25 pounds. I'd keep it off for several months, sometimes longer. But then the extra pounds renewed their attach and started to creep back on.

Finally, partly due to determination and partly due to meds that I have to take continually for my severe back condition, I've lost about 30 pounds and kept it off for almost a year now. Funny thing is, my back injury doesn't allow me to walk as much as I used to, so I exercise my bending my elbows....and pushing myself away from the dinner table!

As I'm sure you'll agree, we are part of a wonderful family. No matter where we serve, no matter if we're volunteers, career folk or paid-on-call responders, a firefighter is always a firefighter. Thus, as I read the LODD bulletins that come through my email or I read the articles online, in the paper or watch them on the news, every loss saddens me, especially those that might have been prevented. For some are simply not preventable and that's the first fact that we have to acknowledge, whether we like it or not.

However, we see that the rate of LODD's caused by health problems is nearly 40% of all LODD's, it must give us pause. As a popular commercial for heart disease demonstrates, no one really knows when they will have a heart attack, an aneurism or a stroke. What we can and do know is if we are out of physical conditioning to do our jobs. Sure, you may have passed a PAT test 15 years ago, but where are you now, especially if you're in a smaller department, that doesn't require annual or semi-annual physical exams? Do you still smoke or chew tobacco? What is your resting blood pressure? Pulse? What is your weight today compared to what it was when you entered the job? Has an officer, your spouse/significant other or doctor told you you need to lose weight? If so, have you heeded their call or brushed them off.

Remember the old TV show, "Home Improvement," where Tim Allen played the host of a TV show aimed at "real men," with "real power tools!" The more power, the more Tim howled and growled. While that was funny on TV, it can all too often lead to a tragedy in real life. Your doctor tells you to drop 25 pounds. "Yeah, Doc, sure," you reply, knowing full well that the doctor has no idea how hard you swung the sledge earlier that day to take out a heavy door. You tell yourself that those 25 pounds that he/she is complaining about is really what gives you that extra bulk, that power, to do your job! Horse shit! And you know it!

There's no doubt in my mind that over 90% of us love what we do. We love the action, we love the thrill, we love the services we perform and we don't want anything to get in the way of that. But ask yourself, "What else do I love?" Think about that for a moment or two. Then make a list of what else you love, i.e. your wife, your kids, your parents, your significant other, your siblings, your friends. Which ones are you ready to cross off the list first. What's more important to you, the job that you love or the people that you love and love you?

Remember, we can't control when and where the Devil wants to dance, but we can decide what kind of a "dance partner" he's going to face!

Stay Safe and let's make sure, "Every One Goes Home!"