Fire agencies across the region battle against firefighter burnout

REGIONAL - Fire season and the triple digit temperatures we've seen in the last few weeks haven't made it easy for firefighters throughout the region as they battle multiple wildfires. When it comes to fighting fires, a lot of the success belongs to what firefighters can do before a fire breaks out.

Franklin County Fire District 3 Chief Mike Harris said his team preps early in the day to avoid the heat later on.

"First thing you know, try to get all of our work done in the morning," Captain Harris said. "They do have to do apparatus checks, inventory, station maintenance. They try to do it but it's early in the morning and the cool part of the day."

As we've seen for a few weeks now, triple digit heat doesn’t help with keeping wildfires from starting or spreading. It’s also taxing on the firefighters when they have to deal with the air temperature and the heat from the fire.

Captain Aaron Bibe with Benton County Fire District One said in our region especially, firefighters have to be just as diligent about caring about themselves so they stay healthy while out doing their jobs.

"We maintain our physical fitness. We workout," Capt. Bibe said. "Physical fitness is a key way of preventing the heat illnesses. We also keep an eye out for each other if we start seeing signs of heat or heat illness. If we need more help, we ask for help.”

Chief Harris said to keep crews going in the field, they maintain a strict schedule of breaks. "We try to do what's called 2-1 work to rest. So for every two hours a firefighter works on a wildland fire we try to give them one hour rest."

Capt. Bibe said maintaining the health and safety of firefighters is always the most important thing to be considered. "We'll assess our crews and stuff and if we need to rotate crews to a slower station to help them kind of recuperate and stuff like that, we'll do so. If it's really bad, we'll find a way to get them get them off the line and get them out of the station for a day so they can go home and relax."

Chief Harris said having volunteers during wildfire season also helps prevent burnout. "Even just a small incident could take a toll on a fire crew and they're here for 48 hours. So they work up to two days on and then they have four days off. So if you got a really busy Sunday, then Monday could be a long day and require some extra rest and lots of extra fluids for the crews. They still have a whole 24 hours to go before the end of their shift and go home and rest. So we try to manage that with extra staffing from our volunteer crew."

Chief Harris said the county is always looking for more volunteers.

If you would like to join, contact the fire district. They can help with the needed requirements for new firefighters.

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