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Permalink Reply by Moose on March 12, 2012 at 9:11am

If I am not mistaken (and I have been before!!) as long as we wear long pants (Jeans, wild fire pants, bunkers) and long sleeve shirts (Wild fire gear, turnout coat) and have a hat or helmet with hood, and we check each other out when we exit the wooded area the chances are cut significantly.

Always get checked by EMS for ticks as well as getting your vitals checked, wear your protective gear and watch out for each other.  I agree, ticks are going to be bad this year and its going to be hard to keep my daughter from playing in the heavily brushed areas with her friends!  lol

Stay Safe and tick free!!

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Permalink Reply by doug smith on March 17, 2012 at 10:50am

Thanks Moose, but that works only if you can get naked for EMS. "NOT HAPPEN'EN!!  Or anyone else for that matter, (except the wife).Those "Little Bastards" climb any where they want, given enough time.  Usually you are safe for the first 72 hrs with taking the anti-biotic. I just don't even want to chance it. I am the Safety Officer for our dept. and I have to make a judgement call for our members. I know that not ALL of them are responsilble enough to check or get checked, (hate to say it).

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Permalink Reply by Moose on March 19, 2012 at 9:41am

Ironically...I had a tick on my leg this weekend.  The wife tried every trick in the book but we couldnt get it out with the head intact, so she had to dig with tweezers and nail clippers to get the head out.  VERY painfull, and now I am heading to the doctors office for a checkup.

 

I hear ya bro, not every bonehead out there wearing turnouts are always responsible enough to get checked for even basic things like blood pressure.  They are too manly to go to the doctors, or approach the EMS rehab at fire scenes to get checked, HELL WITH THAT, I am one of the first firefighters at the rehab section at all fires to get my vitals taken and get checked over.  Someone else might be able to see something that I cant, so I go and get checked out.  Its going to be a long hall, but all of us safety officers need to stick together and beat it into the others that getting checked out by EMS will not ruin your reputation or make you any less manly!! LOL  Too many of us are dropping with heart attacks AFTER the fire, or having some other health related issue from the fire.  Our LODD rate today has more deaths happening at the station or at home after the fire than on the scene.  Its scary, and I for one will continue to get myself checked at every call, if not for my own sake for the sake of my wife and daughter who depend on me.

Great thread brother.

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Permalink Reply by doug smith on March 24, 2012 at 4:23pm

Hey Moose, usually rubbing Ivory dish liquid around the tick, on a que-tip, in a counter clock wise motion gets them out. Takes about 30 secs. Then you get the satisfaction of burning the "Little Bastards" after they come out. A liitle redemption never hurts. HA HA !!

And with the rehab situation. I couldn't agree more. We have more problems with high pulse rates then high BP's. Also, get EMS to use a second BP cuff if you have several people with high BP's. We have had to set quit a few people out, when we could have really used them, because of faulty cuff's. We had to learn the hard way.

Thanks for replies and keep'em safe brother. We are the first and last line of defense for our people.

 

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Permalink Reply by Dean Shank on April 8, 2012 at 10:32pm

I also heard that ticks are going to be overabundant this year.  My approach is to use OFF! or Deet, and use a indirect attack on a wildland fire.  Then again, if you fight the fire "from the black" hopefully the ticks will be burned out already!  Bottom line is when you get off the fireline, be vigilant in checking and removing those little insective vermin!  Stay safe everyone!

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