anyone here with experience as a firefighter?

how physically exhausting is it fighting a fire for a prolonged period of time?

they must workout

Very

camelclub is the Kenny Bania of this board.

Just watch the movie Backdraft.

Are you after gay pics?

Here's my honest answer to your question:

Obviously, fighting a fire this time of year isn't nearly as physically taxing as fighting one in July or August, but any large fire will still wear you out. The primary reason we call for so many additional units (2nd alarm, 3rd alarm, etc.) is for manpower and not the trucks themselves. As you could imagine, it is not safe to have firefighters exerting themselves for long periods of time without some rest and rehydration, so it is always a good idea to have enough people on hand to establish work-rest schedules.

The good thing about yesterday's large fire was that it was a defensive fire, meaning that interior operations wear not feasible or safe; therefore, most firefighting operations were conducted from outside the structure. In these scenarios firefighters do not have to wear quite as much gear or become exposed to the extreme heat that offensive (interior) operations would require. From experience, however, any lengthy fire incident, such as this one, leaves you physically and mentally exhausted and longing for a nice recliner. Unfortunately for these crews, they still had about 12-16 hours left on their shift and probably made quite a few more runs after they finished with this fire.

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Yes. Just a short amount of time conducting interior operations, search and rescue or interior firefighting, is hard and exhausting work. Imagine working in a heavy winter coat with zero exposed skin in an environment anywhere from 100 to 500+ degrees. The gear protects you from the heat, but body heat cannot escape either. Imagine going for a run at mid afternoon in August dressed like you would to walk the dog on a cold winter day. A well trained and physically fit firefighter can get anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes from a 4500 psi air bottle. Fully packed out they are carrying 60 pounds of gear before they pick up a tool or fire hose. For this fire, once the hoses and equipment were set up the mental fatigue are the most critical. Whatever your assignment, the noise of truck engines running pumps, the fire itself, and keeping up with constant radio traffic is draining.

Honestly after a bad fire even the best will need a day to fully recover. It's worse when it's warm outside. It's an Olympic feat when it's hot.

HFD did an outstanding job today.

[This message has been edited by kenneth_2003 (edited 3/26/2014 1:06a).]

Well said, Kenneth! Adding to what you said about interior operations, maneuvering inside a structure that you have never before entered is exhausting by itself. Pulling hose and ceiling furthers this exhaustion. As you said, if we are operating inside a burning structure, we are only doing about 10-15 minutes of work at a time before we must come out for a bottle change/rehab; however, this is typically 10-15 minutes of all-out physical exertion. I don't care how in shape you are, you will "feel it" the day after a good fire.

^ what those guys said.

Glad I wasn't working. I wouldn't have made it there anyways but would have been covering the territory of other stations that were there. I'm sure those guys and girls got their butts kicked even if it was defensive.

And one of the city council members think we have too many firefighters and apparatus in this city, "because most calls are EMS". It's true, but those same firefighters respond to EMS calls too before and after these fires. That fire yesterday shows, and the one last year on May 31 shows why we need the personnel and units we have.

So you're telling me the fat firefighter For whom I put $5 for muscular dystrophy in the boot he was holding is probably on dispatch duty ?

I 'm just kidding! He was an older guy too, probably retired and just helping out. Not trying to give grief.

Could have been a driver/operator or an officer that would handle more incident command and logistical issues on a scene. Additionally it's not all about running like a dragster. Someone that can perform like a diesel is equally valuable on scene.

Things can and do develop rapidly on a scene, however that does not necessarily require sprinting into action. It requires purposeful actions with the stamina to see the task through to the end.

If you've ever had the pleasure of sitting for a meal at a firehouse, you understand how there are some "hefty" firefighters haha. They cook some damn good food, but it is not always health-conscious. Also, many of the older guys go to what are affectionately known as "retirement houses," where the call volume is significantly lower than the hotter houses that they served in during their younger days. This, along with the great food, creates some of the dunlop disease that you might have seen. As Kenneth said, the bigger and older guys are probably in some sort of command, administrative, support, or chauffeur role that doesn't require quite as much physical stamina as the guys in suppression roles.

Regardless, there has been a big movement within the fire service over the past decade-ish to encourage firefighters to incorporate physical fitness into their training programs. Heart attacks are still a big killer of firemen.

The good thing for them is that it wasn't insanely hot that day and as was mentioned earlier, it was mostly a defensive fire. There would have been a lot more worn out firefighters had workers been trapped inside.

While I've never fought a fire that large, I can say from experience that when fighting a standard 2-story house fire, weather is huge. Doing that late in July, when they typically happen for whatever reason, I'll be pouring sweat just running the cross lay to the door. We go through a lot of air and have to switch out often (if replacements are available). I'd much rather fight a fire in the winter time.

Lucky for HFD, there ARE lots of replacements. Not to say they don't wear themselves out or anything but one can argue that certain aspects of it are worse in the small departments or in the volunteer departments where 2 firefighters may have to control an entire house fire.