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Permalink Reply by Patrick on March 30, 2009 at 11:23pm

I think it's a good idea. We are required to have a physical once a year. If we get hurt on a scene and can't show proof of a physical there will be problems with workers comp covering us.

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Permalink Reply by dj lee on March 30, 2009 at 11:29pm

I think that it's a good idea. Every firefighter should have to take a physical every year.

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Permalink Reply by Ron King (Fire Chief) on March 30, 2009 at 11:30pm

Great idea, our dept. has physicals.

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Permalink Reply by Robert C. Baker on March 30, 2009 at 11:42pm

Everyone out there should be getting some type of F.D. medical screening and physical yearly, it finds small problems before they become big ones. Again I'm sure money is going to play a big decision in how in depth the yearly physical gets, but it should include a stress test, EKG, pulmonary function, and complete blood work.
Yes I get my physical every year on my Birthday I kinda look at it as a present to me. Oh, and by the way I'm required to get the extra tests I mentioned and guess what, they didn't hurt at all.

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Permalink Reply by BillySFCVFD on March 30, 2009 at 11:51pm

Physical exams and fitness tests can identify potential health problems and the ability to do the, sometimes, very demanding job of a firefighting.

I believe it isn't required by some FDs, mostly VFDs, for a variety of reasons none of which can justify the risk of not making it a requirement.

To be as humble as possible, based on my observation of my fellow VFD FFs on the fire ground, I think I am the most fit. That doesn't mean that I fight fires with a bunch of big gut good 'ol boys but I have my doubts that most can keep up with me when the going gets tough. Of course it's all about working on the fire and not letting the fire work on you.

My case might not be that unusual for a 56 year old Army soldier with over 36 years of federal service where a physical fitness test was administered semi annually. Passed them all. TCSS

PS How was my spelling and grammar?

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Permalink Reply by Rick on March 31, 2009 at 12:01am

This is a very interesting topic and I'm going to play devils advocate. PWC is a densly populated suburb of Wash. DC, They generally dont have MAJOR funding issues nor a shortage of volunteers. As a career fireman I support mandatory health screenings (1582) for all firefighters. With that said lets be honest, with their demographics, if you turn down any minority for any reason you have to be ready to justify that in court almost immeaditly. So one half of me says bring on the standards and lets recruit and retain qualified individuals, people that can actually do the job. On the other hand for the last 5+ years I have had the opprotunity to deal with rural VFD's that probably make up 60% - 70% of fire departments in this COUNTRY. These guys dont have a voice in NFPA, IAFC or the IAFF. They are tasked with providing the same emergency services as urban and suburban departments across this COUNTRY, but expected to do it with 15 members and an annual budget of 20K or less. In my opinion trying to hold a rural VFD in Idaho or New Mexico to the same standards as FDNY or LAFD is not reasonable or realistic. In a community of less than 15000 where only 20 people want volunteer you have to compromise or that community will not have fire protection at all. It's been my experience that alot of smaller departments have " interior" members that do meet 1001 and "support" members that do not, meaning that the person who drives you to the scene and gets you water has no intention of ever going inside. As insane as this might sound it's what the majorty of this country does and it works for them due to very limited resources and funding. Blanket policies for ALL firefighters across the Country will not work unless the States or US Gov. coff up alot of money for the " required" training, good luck with that. In the mean time time what do you do with the little guy... let the community burn???

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Permalink Reply by Rick on March 31, 2009 at 12:39am

PS How was my spelling and grammar?

Mine sucked

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Permalink Reply by BillySFCVFD on March 31, 2009 at 12:56am

Rick,

Your post was easy to read and made sense to me. My VFD is probably like most. Everyone knows everyone well enough to establish the roles of the support guys as opposed to the hose handlers. In a perfect world all FDs would have standardization for safety's sake. TCSS

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