By Craig A. Haigh and Denise L. Smith
Even in good economic times, fire departments struggle to find a balance between the desire to implement new and needed programs, including incident rehabilitation, and the reality of finding the resources to do so. The current era of constrained resources makes it even more difficult and stressful for fire department leaders to deliver necessary programs. This article describes how an incident scene rehabilitation (rehab) program can increase firefighter safety and improve on-scene performance, as well as techniques to help leaders identify ways to implement an effective rehab program without negatively impacting overall operational costs.
Incident scene rehabilitation is an intervention to mitigate the physical, physiological, and emotional stress of firefighting; improve performance; and decrease the likelihood of injury or death. Firefighters routinely encounter fatigue, heat stress, and dehydration on the fireground. These stressors impair performance and may present serious health challenges. Firefighting also causes significant cardiovascular strain and, less frequently but even more seriously, can trigger a sudden cardiac event in individuals with underlying cardiovascular disease.
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