Firefighting is a very hazardous profession. Firefighters experience an injury rate that is three times higher than other physically demanding professions and the death rate in the fire service is also much higher compared to typical. Throughout the literature, data suggest the physical nature of firefighting contributes to the high incidence of injury and death among firefighters. As such, special interest groups and firefighting organizations advocate for firefighters to exercise and stay fit in order to safeguard their physical health. Yet, despite these efforts, firefighters still experience a very high incidence of back injuries and heart attacks which can lead to early retirement from disability or death. In the first aim of this dissertation, we examined the relationships between specific back fitness tests and history of back injuries in 113 firefighters in an effort to understand which fitness tests may aid in screening firefighters for risk of back injury. We found that a test of lumbar extension flexibility was associated with a higher incidence of back injuries among our sample (p<0.01). In the second aim of the study, we investigated whether perceived fitness was related to history of back injuries since firefighters’ perceptions of their fitness level may direct how they choose to perform job tasks that pose high risk for injury. Within the same sample of firefighters, we found that perceived fitness was not related to history of back injuries nor was the relationship between actual fitness and history of back injuries mediated by perceived fitness. However, perceived fitness correlated with scores on our back strength (r=0.28; p=0.003) and hamstring strength (r=0.21; p=0.03) tests. In the third aim of the dissertation, we sought to develop a treadmill walking protocol to screen firefighters for low aerobic capacity which is a major risk factor for heart attack. Thirty-eight male firefighters wore a vest weighing 20% of their body weight and performed a walking VO2max test in which the treadmill grade increased by 1% each minute. The predicted VO2max from this walking test was very accurate; within a standard error of the estimate of 3.2 ml/kg/min. This new (Moore) protocol requires only a standard treadmill and is more job specific than a running test. In conclusion, more research needs to be conducted to understand how firefighters’ perceived fitness directs their behaviors when performing job tasks and how high levels of fitness can protect against back injuries and heart attacks in firefighters. This dissertation has contributed to the development of screening protocols to aid in preventing these adverse events. / Graduation date: 2013

Räddningstjänstens verksamhet regleras i Lag (2003:778) om skydd mot olyckor och det första nationella målet lyder: ”Bestämmelserna i denna lag syftar till att i hela landet bereda människors liv och hälsa samt egendom och miljö ett med hänsyn till de lokala förhållandena tillfredsställande och likvärdigt skydd mot olyckor.”   Räddningstjänst organiseras med brandmän i tre olika anställningsformer, varav deltidsanställda brandmän är en av dem och idag är den formella benämningen Räddningspersonal i beredskap, RiB. Ungefär 67% av Sveriges brandmän utgörs av RiB och redan år 1999 uppmärksammades svårigheter med personalförsörjningen. Vid kontakt med Myndigheten för samhällsskydd och beredskap samt Sveriges Kommuner och Landsting fanns kännedom om rekryteringssituationen, men den exakta omfattningen var okänd.   Denna studie består av en undersökning av den nuvarande situationen avseende rekrytering för RiB i Sverige. Undersökningen jämförs med den svenska regeringens undersökning från år 2003. I jämförelsestudien medverkar samtliga respondenter från den tidigare utredningen, vilket medför en svarsfrekvens på 100%. Jämförelsen påvisar att nyrekrytering och upprätthållande av beredskap har en negativ trend, trots att grundutbildningen gjorts om samt att kommunerna har moderniserat och utvecklat rekryteringsmetoderna. I den nationella sammanställningen, för år 2018 som omfattar 111 respondenter och representerar drygt 60% av Sveriges kommuner, framkommer att majoriteten av räddningstjänsterna upplever svårigheter vid nyrekrytering. Totalt är det 331 vakanser för fasta RiB-tjänster samt 194 vakanser för vikarietjänster och drygt hälften, 52%, av respondenterna klarar inte att kontinuerligt upprätthålla den beslutade beredskapen.   Den största orsaken till rekryteringssituationen är de demografiska förhållandena, vilket har samband med att 200 av Sveriges 290 kommuner uppfyller Europeiska kommissionens generaldirektorat för statistisk information, Eurostats, definition för landsbygd. Det som är mest alarmerande är att det påverkar kommunernas förmåga att upprätthålla beredskap.   Det finns möjlighet att förbättra och stärka situationen genom olika slags förbättringsåtgärder och/eller en kombination av dessa. Det finns ingen entydig lösning på problemet i och med att förutsättningarna är olika från kommun till kommun. Det som är tydligt är att det är upp till våra politiker och staten att försöka stötta räddningstjänsterna på ett annat sätt än vad som görs idag och att investera mer i landsbygden. Målsättningen borde vara att leda Sverige till att bli ett ledande land som ligger i framkant när det gäller att utveckla, främja och stödja landsbygden. / The Swedish civil protection service activities are governed by ‘Lag (2003:778) om skydd mot olyckor’ and the first national objective reads: ‘The provisions of this law aim to make people's lives and health as well as property and environment throughout the country a satisfactory and equivalent protection against accidents, taking into account the local conditions.’   Emergency services are organized with firefighters in three different types of employment. One of these is part time firefighters, and the formal term for this employment is ‘Räddningspersonal i beredskap’, RiB. About 67% of Sweden's firefighters consist of RiB and as early as 1999, difficulties with staffing was noted. In contact with the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency and Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions, the problems with recruitment of RiB was known, but the vast extent of these problems had not yet been discovered.   This study consists of a survey of the current situation regarding the recruitment situation for RiB in Sweden. The survey is controlled and compared against the Swedish government's investigation from 2003. The compilation study involves all participants from the previous investigation which results in a response rate of 100%. The study shows that new recruitment and maintenance of preparedness has a negative trend, even though the basic education has been modified and the municipalities have modernized and developed recruitment methods. In the national compilation, of year 2018 involving 111 respondents representing more than 60% of Sweden's municipalities, it appears that the majority of emergency services experience difficulties in recruitment, a total of 331 vacancies for permanent RiB services and 194 vacancies for temporary employment and more than half, 52%, of the respondents fail to maintain the determined preparedness continously.   The main reason for the recruitment situation is the demographic conditions, which is linked to the fact that 200 of Sweden's 290 municipalities meet the European commission’s definition of rural areas. What is most alarming is that it directly affects municipalities' abilities to maintain preparedness.   There is an opportunity to improve and strengthen the situation through various kinds of improvement actions and/or a combination of these. There is no clear solution to the problem. As conditions are different in most municipalities, it is also difficult to provide a simple and general way for how to proceed. What is clear is that it is up to our politicians and the state to try to support the emergency services in a different way than today, alternatively, investing in rural areas. The goal should be to lead Sweden to become a leading country at the forefront of developing, promoting and supporting rural areas.

This diploma thesis focuses on the analyzing the current state of monitoring the radiation situation by volunteer firefighters units in the emergency planning area in Dukovany nuclear power plant surroundings. The process of measurement is divided into preparation for radiation leakage and application of learned procedures in the case of the occurred radiation leakage. The aim is to identify the dangers in the current process as well as the possible risks in the case of radiation emergency by risk analysis. Based on this analysis, improvements suggestions will be made. These measures will be evaluated by their applicability and their economic value. The system of monitoring by voluntary firefighters will be compared with another monitoring system, which can be also used. The result of the analysis will be a more effective way of monitoring, including safety of the firefighter and less financial complexity.

This Diploma thesis is a project documentation of a fire station building. It is about a spacious building that contains space and equipment needed for working of the fire station of professional and voluntary firefighters. The construction is situated at the edge of the town Pacov in Vysočina region. Downstairs there are placed garages for firefighters ‘vehicles, technical areas and a changing room. Upstairs there are offices, a gym, and rooms for firefighters. The building has a rectangular floor plan with a flat vegetation roof. The building is made of calcareous sandstone blocks with contact insulation.

Background: Within the rescue service, a varied background is needed to increase the possibility of delivering equal service to the citizens. At present, there is a skewed gender distribution within the municipal rescue services, with only a couple of percent of the firefighters being women. Many women find it difficult to meet the physical limit values on recruitment tests. The standing long jump (SLJ) is used as a part of recruitment tests on many rescue services, to assess leg power. It is not clear though whether SLJ is the most appropriate field-test to assess leg power in firefighter trainees, with men and women mixed in the same group, as it has been argued that anthropometric factors, such as body height (BH), affects the result. Thereby we wanted to study the relationship between BH and SLJ, and compere SLJ with another field-test for measuring leg power, one that omits the variable BH. Aim: The aim was to study the strength of the relationship between body height and the jump length at standing long jump, for firefighter trainees. A second aim was to study the strength of the relationship between firefighter trainees' jump results of the two tests: standing long jump and vertical jump. Methods: The study was executed as an observational cross-sectional study. Three different measurements were carried out: BH, vertical jump (VJ) and SLJ. Correlation analyzes, with Pearson's correlation coefficient, were performed on BH in relation to SLJ, and VJ in relation to SLJ. Results: Fourteen (n = 14) firefighter trainees (women n = 5, men n = 9) met the inclusion criteria and participated in the study. Subjects' age, body mass index (BMI) and number of workouts per week were 29 ± 7 years old, 25 ± 2 kg/m2 and 4 ± 1 workouts (at least 30 minutes) per week. Results showed a significant moderate correlation between BH and SLJ (r = 0.572). Between the variables VJ and SLJ there were a significant strong correlation (r = 0.862). However, the results changed substantially when the analyzes were performed separately for men and women, with a very low correlation level (r = 0.106 respective r = 0.166) between BH and SLJ. For VJ and SLJ there were a moderate correlation level for men and low for women (r = 0.414 respective r = 0.387). Conclusion: The result from this study is in line with aforementioned work and supports the hypothesis that BH to some extent can affect the jump result at SLJ. Our study complements earlier work and indicates that these results are also applicable to firefighter trainees. The findings in this study indicates VJ could possibly be an alternative field test for SLJ, to assess leg power when recruiting new firefighters. Additional studies are required to investigate the correlation between SLJ and VJ with ad- ditional confounders, such as actual leg power, and also the correlation between VJ and fire- fighters heaviest among most common work tasks.

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of Psychology University of Zululand, 2004. / This report presents the findings of a study conducted in 2003-2004, involving eight members of emergency services in Stanger, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. The emergency personnel included five firefighters and three paramedics. The aim of the study was to develop and evaluate a mutual aid group programme in order to prevent symptoms of trauma, with special reference to anxiety and depression, and promote psychological well-being in emergency personnel. Emergency personnel are exposed to traumatic events during the line of duty. The study investigated stressors, which were identified as organizational, management style, ineffective communication, stressors relating to patient care (personal loss, traumatic stimuli, high expectations) and low job and high workloads. The study also investigated psychological, physical and social effects of emergency work. Psychological effects that were identified were mental illnesses such as depression and posttraumatic stress disorder. Symptoms included irritability, anger, frustration, hopelessness, helplessness, fear and anxiety. Physical effects included fatigue, difficulty breathing, startle response, nausea, trembling and racing heart. Social problems such as conflicts with family, friends and colleagues were also identified. The study provided group members with the ability to identify symptoms of trauma and accept vulnerability, which served as important preventative measures for mental illness. The group created a safe atmosphere where members were able to share their feelings without the fear of being judged. It also provided members with new coping strategies for dealing with their feelings. Regarding further support systems the group members identified an ongoing need for help via psychologists, psychological debriefing and support from management, family as well as the community. / National Research Foundation

This thesis investigates the possibility of creating a Virtual Reality learning environment prototype designed for firefighters. There are a lot of complications with the current training setup for firefighters, such as the environmental impact and that it is very timeconsuming. Another issue is that the firefighters are always training at the same location, which makes it very difficult to practice navigation with a thermal camera since they know the location by heart. A prototype has been designed and developed in cooperation with firefighters in Östergötland. The prototype was created to emulate a search and rescue mission where smoke diving is required. The main task of the mission is to navigate with a thermal camera in an unfamiliar apartment where training of the decision making process is in focus. The learning environment was tested and evaluated both by staff at Combitech as well as with the public at an exhibit. Moreover, it was also tested and evaluated by actual firefighters. The evaluation of the prototype concluded that it had a lot of potential to be used as a VR learning environment for firefighters. Some firefighters suggested that the prototype could already be used as a learning tool today, while others meant that it needed some improvements such as more tasks and multiple environments in order to be used to its full potential. The test results did also provide positive feedback on the usability of the VR learning environment. With some work, the VR learning environment can help the firefighters in their training.

The aim of this study is to perform a rhetorical analysis of how a professional identity is constructed through deliberation. The object of study is firefighters, as they have a strong sense of community. Using rhetorical ethnographic method, the research question is to investigate how firefighters create, confirm, and develop professional identity through social interactions. Recordings and transcriptions of their internal communication were made, in search of recurring themes and perspectives. The theory of this work is based on Aristotle’s practical definition of rhetoric as deliberation, further developed by Burke’s theory of identification. In addition, Perelmans understanding of auditorium and Wolrath-Söderbergs theory of topos form the basis of the theoretical perspectives. The results show that the recurring themes and perspectives in the firefighter’s conversations depict what it means to 1) work as a firefighter, and 2) live as a firefighter. The conclusion is that the day-to-day tasks and other shared interests constitute meeting points for discussion, where the firefighters construct their professional identity through social strategies, such as identification and disassociation, proximity and distance in the communication.

В работе анализируется система управления общественной безопасностью в сфере компетенции МЧС России. МЧС России как социальный институт реализует обеспечение общественной безопасности, в том числе и защиту населения от чрезвычайных ситуаций природного и техногенного характера. В работе исследована роль добровольной пожарной охраны как элемента данного социального института и разработан проект, реализация которого повышает уровень обеспечения пожарной безопасности на территории Свердловской области. / Analyzing management system of social security in competence of ESM Russia. ESM Russia as social institution guarantees social security from natural and technological emergencies. Volunteering firefighters’ brigade is analyzed as essential element of recently mentioned institution; a project to enhance the civil fires security in Sverdlovskaya oblast region.

Employee job satisfaction of public sector professionals: The roles of public safety work and public service motivation