Analysis of the thermophysiological response to cooling techniques in firefighters

Abstract

Firefighting has often been compared to a fight against an enemy capable of both material and lives’ loss. It is a physical activity that requires a rare combination of strength, flexibility, endurance and intelligence to survive under extreme conditions. When it comes to firefighting, men fighting fires are potential victims of heat stress because they go through long periods of hard work in hot environments. The present work’s target is the analysis of firefighters’ thermophysiological reactions to heat stress situations caused by hyperthermia. Using a software that simulates the human body’s thermophysiological behavior, several aspects, such as the fire intensity’s influence on the thermal state of the firefighter, the exposure time and the body cooling technique used to attenuate heat stress, are highlighted. With the goal of embracing the most possible situations, three intensity levels of impinging radiation that come from the fire and affect men fighting fires are analyzed: low; medium; and high. Three alternative body cooling techniques are considered: the traditional one; by immersion of forearms and hands in water at 20ºC; and by immersion of forearms and hands in 10ºC water. Normal ingestion of water during recovering breaks (matching the cooling times) was also in focus in the simulations.