VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — As the weather keeps getting hotter, firefighters are focused on how to protect themselves while also protecting you.
Capt. Marcus Croft with the Virginia Brach Fire Department told 10 On Your Side firefighting is already a tough job.
“Firefighting is one of the highest demands on the body,” Croft said. “It’s oftentimes running seven, 800 calories an hour and losing water weight very, very quickly to a point where it’s impossible to recover in a short period of time.”
But the difficulty increases when you add in the heat factor.
“Pretend you’re getting ready for a ski trip, put on your ski pants, your jacket, your hat, your goggles, your gloves,” Croft said. “But now instead of it being wintertime, run outside in the summertime.”
That heat gets even worse with the humidity we feel in Hampton Roads.
Aaron McKissick, public safety coordinator with the city of Virginia Beach, said that’s why heat training is such a big part of what they teach fire recruits.
“That includes hydrating themselves, to sleeping properly and eating properly,” McKissick said. “Most people consider heat-related illness to be just fluid intake, but do not understand that you can get four cups of water or fluid themselves just from eating healthy food.”
They said there are multiple systems in place at active scenes to make sure firefighters don’t get heat-related illnesses.
“We’re always going to frontload the fire scene with a rehab location where firefighters can disengage from firefighting activities, remove some of their gear, have a down rotation to recover,” Croft said. “We have a rehab truck that reports to all working structure fires that brings water and ice.”
That’s in addition to an on-scene safety officer.
They said that, at the end of the day, heat safety for fire crews comes down to a simple agreement.
“The firefighters that they’re going to show up to work in shape, hydrated, ready to go,” McKissick said, “and that the department’s going to look out for their safety as well.”
