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Stopbad: Rehab your firefighters
March 24, 2025
By Gord Schreiner, Fire Chief, Comox, British Columbia
In April 2006, a visiting 52-year-old firefighter suffered a fatal heart attack while attending a live fire training exercise at our fire training centre. For us in Comox, this event changed everything.
Before this tragic event we treated our firefighters as other fire departments might. We work them and give them water breaks.
Now we have a very formal firefighter rehab policy. At our training centre, students are assessed before they start training and if they don’t meet some very strict medical protocols, they are not allowed to participate in the training. We have been finding that about one in 10 students do not meet the accepted medical standards. During their training day the students are constantly assessed and if they fall outside of acceptable limits their training would end at that time, for that day. Also, every one of our Comox firefighters have their blood pressure checked before our weekly training sessions. Anyone with a pressure above our acceptable standard (160/100) does not participate in strenuous physical activities.
On our firegrounds we have adopted a similar approach where after about 30 minutes of strenuous work the firefighters are sent to a rehab area and rehabilitated and assessed. If they fall outside of these acceptable limits they are not allowed to continue with their strenuous duties (regardless of how bad the fire is). Rehab is now a function of every emergency and training incident we run.
We researched what others were doing and put together a rehab program that would work for us. Our program includes the basics like hydration and food, and includes medical monitoring of pulse, blood pressure, temperature, oxygen and carbon monoxide saturations. Added equipment includes misting fans, rehab chairs, core cooler vests, automatic blood pressure cuffs, CO/Ox meters, coolers, towels and more drinks and food on the fire apparatus.
We have added water bottles in the cab of our fire apparatus so our firefighters can hydrate on the way to an incident as well as during and after. This simple little step can greatly increase your firefighters’ safety. A complete rehab program should include medical monitoring during all incidents. This is a function we have taken on at the fire department operational level. Many fire departments use their local EMS service to provide this function, but we wanted to take our program to the next level. Because we are a small community, we cannot always get EMS to attend our incidents and if we do, they might leave with a patient from the incident, leave with a firefighter needing advance medical attention or leave for another incident. They often leave while we are still doing mop-up or salvage, while this is just as important a time to ensure the rehab function is present and active. So, we include this very important function with our staging area and management. It’s run by firefighters, for firefighters, that way we control it. However we still request EMS to standby in case a firefighter needs to go for more advance treatment.
This takes additional resources which could be provided using mutual aid or other members who may no longer be fit enough to provide suppression duties.
We have also added a whole new focus to firefighter fitness. Not only do our firefighters and their families get free fitness passes at our community fitness centre but we have also added a firefighter-only fitness centre at our fire station accessible 24 hours per day. We have also added fitness to our regular practice schedule where an entire company of firefighters can go to the fitness centre during a practice session.
We have seen some of our firefighters change their diets and increase their fitness because they want to ensure they can pass the rehab protocols and, more importantly, stay alive.
Fire fighting is an extremely challenging job. Firefighters (including chief officers) need to be in very good physical and mental condition to perform their duties.
We are happy to share all of the rehab stuff that we have put together (P.S., this 67-year-old chief is heading to the gym right now).
Firefighter safety is our No. 1 job. Do your part to improve firefighter safety!
For more information please contact: Fire Chief Gord Schreiner, firehall@comox.ca
Gord has 50 years in the fire service and has delivered countless presentations all over Canada. He is available to assist your department in many areas.
Gord Schreiner is the fire chief in Comox, B.C. and manages the Comox Fire Training Centre. He has spent 48 years in the fire service and delivered presentations all over Canada. For more info, contact: firehall@comox.ca.
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