Firefighters’ safety is a critical problem and a major issue is the lack of reliable indoor firefighter localization. State of the art approaches have failed to provide an automatic, accurate and reliable solution to localize firefighters in harsh environments. This paper presents a novel system to achieve this goal, by combining pedestrian dead reckoning with a recently emerging breadcrumb sys...

Although the nature of firefighting involves particular health hazards, previous mortality and morbidity studies of firemen have produced inconsistent evidence for an increased risk of mortality from cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, cancer and accidents. Mortality experience since 1915 has been examined in 5655 Boston firefighters, comprising all male members of the city fire depart...

Although firefighters have been shown in some studies to suffer chronic respiratory morbidity from their occupational exposures, an increased risk for dying from non-malignant respiratory diseases has not been documented in any previous retrospective cohort mortality study. In order to assess the possibility that an unusually strong "healthy worker effect" among firefighters might mask this inc...

BACKGROUND Considerable cardiovascular disease and cancer risk among firefighters are attributable to excess adiposity. Robust evidence confirms strong relationships between dietary patterns and the risk of chronic disease. Dietary modification is more likely to be effective when the strategy is appealing and addresses knowledge gaps. OBJECTIVE To assess career firefighters' diet practices an...

Antimony oxides, in combination with halogens, have been used as flame retardants in textiles since the 1960s. Uniforms made from fabric containing antimony are common among the estimated 1.1 million firefighters in the United States. In October 2008, CDC received a report from the fire chief of a fire department in Florida (fire department A) regarding an outbreak of antimony toxicity among 30...

This study examined the influences of aluminized (Type A) and non-aluminized firefighters’ protective clothing (Type B, C, D and CON) on physiological and subjective responses in radiant heat. Total clothing weight was 6.24, 6.38, 6.06, 5.76 and 3.82 kg for Type A, B, C, D and CON, respectively. Eight firefighters performed exercise at an air temperature of 30°C with 50%RH. Three bouts of 10 mi...

On May 13, 2000, a firework depot exploded in a residential area of the city of Enschede, The Netherlands. Many disaster workers responded, including volunteer firefighters, a group that has received little attention in disaster research. This study examined the presence of health problems in volunteer firefighters who were involved in disaster work, three years after the disaster. Furthermore,...

Wildfire disasters are potentially traumatic events which directly and indirectly affect both citizens and first responders. The study of posttraumatic growth is scarcely found in the context of firefighters and only few studies have addressed this construct. In the current study, posttraumatic symptoms and posttraumatic growth were investigated among Israeli firefighters (N = 65), approximatel...

Firefighters are exposed to carcinogens such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) during fires and from their personal protective equipment (PPE). Recent research has shown that decontamination processes can reduce contamination on both gear and skin. While firefighter cultures that honor dirty gear are changing, little is known about current attitude...