Firefighters are more likely to be injured while exercising than while operating on the fireground, according to a study on the journal Injury Prevention. It found that physical exercise, patient transport, and training activities were responsible for a greater percentage of injuries than fireground operations.
Firefighting and EMS work is inherently dangerous and the two combined have one of the highest rates of injuries and deaths of any profession in the United States, according to a write-up in the Science Codex (http://bit.ly/v8I0Eb).
The injury Prevention study looked at data for injuries sustained while at work for 21 fire stations in the metro Tucson (AZ) area between 2004 and 2009. Nearly 33 percent of all injuries (most of which were not deemed serious) occurred during mandatory exercise during a worker’s shift.
The abstract of the study can be found here: http://bit.ly/vi6vpI
For articles on physical training and fitness for the fire service, read person trainer Mike Krueger’s regular column on Fire Life at http://www.firelife.com/index/fitness.html.
