Factors related to injury of shiftworking fire fighters in the Northeastern United States

Fire fighters, who provide society with an essential and life-saving service, are subjected to the effects of shiftwork and to the demands (physical and mental) and dangers of their profession, all of which can contribute to injuries. To identify factors involved in injuries to fire fighters, the timing, frequency, types, and places of occurrence of injuries sustained by fire fighters in three different municipal fire departments were examined. Data was obtained from analysis of Workers' Compensation forms. The most frequent injuries involved inhalation of hazardous materials and lacerations. Ninety-two percent of the injuries occurred at the fire scene, and their causes were related to fire fighting duties, such as rescue, extinguishment and overhaul. Although only 54% of fire alarms nationwide occurred from 12:00 to 16:00 and from 18:00 to 24:00 (42% of a 24 hour day), 68% of the injuries sustained by the fire fighters studied occurred during these time periods. Per alarm, at meal time or on the night shift fire fighters were more likely to be injured. Serious injuries were more prevalent at standardly accepted meal-times. The timing of the highest frequencies of injuries suggests that, due to the shiftwork nature of firefighting, both disruption of eating patterns and fatigue increase the risk of work-related injury to fire fighters. By understanding the contribution of factors, especially human ones, such as altered metabolism (due to disruption) and fatigue (due to time elapsed since awakening, alteration/disruption of sleep-wake pattern, or hypoglycaemia), interventions can be developed, which should decrease the incidence of injuries to fire fighters.