Oct 12, 2009 11:46 pm US/Eastern
Are Unfit Firefighters Putting You At Risk?
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
They have to be focused. They have to be fit. They risk their lives to save others, but being in shape is not a requirement for many fire departments in Massachusetts.
Dr. Stephanos Kales of Harvard University researched this subject of obesity and risk of job disability in male firefighters. "I would say given almost half of the deaths in the fire service line of duty are due to heart disease, and we know that the risk of heart disease is inversely related to physical fitness. It is imperative for the fire service to embrace physical fitness."
Stephanos focused on recruits. You would think they would be very fit, but he found that "75 percent were overweight or obese – with a full third being obese."
"I find that they are victims of society," said Firefighting Academy Recruit Trainer Jim Hagerty. "They are coming in out of shape, unconditioned."
Hagerty knows the problem of obese firefighters. "If you've got someone that looks sloppily obese, then to me they are not taking pride in the profession. They're not doing our profession any good, whatsoever.
To get an idea of what is physically required to do their job, I was suited up to participate in a couple of exercises.
We go into a burning building, climbed three flights of stairs, and in just seconds, you feel the strains and stresses, and the exercise is nothing compared to the real thing. "I tell the recruits they have a duty to their family to go home at the end of a shift, not down with a heart attack, or any circumstance that can be prevented through physical fitness," said Mike Gelinas of the Mass. Firefighting Academy.
You really do have to be in shape to be a firefighter, so why is it then that some departments let firefighters stay on the street when they aren't? Some would argue they pose a danger to themselves and other firefighters.
"It's sobering. One hundred eighteen firefighters died last year in the U.S. Forty-five died as a result of cardiac," said State Fire Marshal Stephen Coan.
The state fire marshal may teach recruits to stay in shape, but soon these recruits will go to work for departments all over the state -- departments that require equipment to be maintained, but have no such requirement when it comes to the most important equipment they have: their firefighters.
The Boston Fire Department is considering physical fit standards. It's even being discussed in their negotiations for a new contract, but sources say that drug and alcohol testing seems to be the primary focus.
What do you think? Should there be a standard? Does being unfit in this line of work present a danger?
Join the conversation on wbztv.com!
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