Citation

Caban-Martinez AJ, Kropa B, Niemczyk N, Moore KJ, Baum J, Solle NS, Sterling DA, Kobetz EN. Saf. Health Work 2018; 9(3): 352-355.

Affiliation

Department of Medicine, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Occupational Safety and Health Research Institute)

DOI

10.1016/j.shaw.2017.12.003

PMID

30370169

PMCID

PMC6130006

Abstract

Hazardous work zones (i.e., hot, warm, and cold) are typically established by emergency response teams during hazardous materials (HAZMAT) calls but less consistently for fire responses to segment personnel and response activities in the immediate geographic area around the fire. Despite national guidelines, studies have documented the inconsistent use of respiratory protective equipment by firefighters at the fire scene. In this case-series report, we describe warm zone gas levels using multigas detectors across five independent fire incident responses all occurring in a large South Florida fire department. Multigas detector data collected at each fire response indicate the presence of sustained levels of volatile organic compounds in the "warm zone" of each fire event. These cases suggest that firefighters should not only implement strategies for multigas detector use within the warm zone but also include respiratory protection to provide adequate safety from toxic exposures in the warm zone.

Language: en

Keywords

Firefighters; Multigas detectors; Respiratory protection; Warm zone