Fire Fighter Suffers Unwitnessed Sudden Cardiac Death After Responding to Mobile Home Fire – South Carolina

Details

• Personal Author:
  Baldwin, Tommy N.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program (FFFIPP)
• Description:
  Death in the Line of Duty…a Summary of a NIOSH Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation
  
  On May 6, 2002, a 38-year-old male volunteer Fire Fighter (FF) was dispatched by his combination fire department (FD) (he was also a member of another career FD) to a mobile home fire near his home. After responding and assisting with fire suppression, he returned home. At some time during the day, he suffered an unwitnessed sudden cardiac death. He was found by a friend in the evening. No resuscitation measures were initiated and the FF was pronounced dead at the scene by the County Coroner. The death certificate, completed by the County Coroner, and the autopsy, performed by the Medical Examiner, listed "cardiac arrhythmia" as the immediate cause of death due to "stress of fighting fire" and "cardiomegaly with dilatation" as contributing factors. The following recommendations address some general health and safety issues. This list includes some preventive measures that have been recommended by other agencies to reduce the risk of on-the-job heart attacks and sudden cardiac arrest among fire fighters. These selected recommendations have not been evaluated by NIOSH, but represent published research, or consensus votes of technical committees of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) or fire service labor/management groups: 1. Consider conducting exercise stress tests for fire fighters with two or more risk factors for coronary artery disease (CAD). Although unrelated to this fatality, the Fire Department should consider these recommendations based on health and economic considerations: 1. Provide mandatory annual medical evaluations to fire fighters consistent with NFPA 1582 to determine their medical ability to perform duties without presenting a significant risk to the safety and health of themselves or others
  
  2. Perform a pre-placement and an annual physical performance (physical ability) evaluation for ALL fire fighters to ensure they are physically capable of performing the essential job tasks of structural fire fighting
  
  3. Phase in a mandatory wellness/fitness program for fire fighters to reduce risk factors for cardiovascular disease and improve cardiovascular capacity
  
  and, 4. Provide adequate fire fighter staffing to ensure safe operating conditions.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Cardiovascular Diseases Cardiovascular System Emergency Responders Firefighters Health Care Facilities Workforce And Services Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Cardiovascular-disease Cardiovascular-function Cardiovascular-system Cardiovascular-system-disease Cardiovascular-system-disorders Emergency-responders Fire-fighters Heart Medical-examinations Medical-monitoring Medical-screening OSHA Region 4 Physical-fitness Physical-stress

  More +
• FACE - Firefighter:
  Cause of Death: Medical ; Cardiovascular: Arrhythmia ; Cardiovascular: Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy ; Cardiovascular: Dilated Cardiomyopathy
• Series:
  Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program (FFFIPP)
• Subseries:
  Death in the Line of Duty Report
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHFFFACEF200423
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study ; Report
• Place as Subject:
  South Carolina ; OSHA Region 4
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSHEFS - Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations, and Field Studies
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-11
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20025609
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2005-101041
• Citation:
  Cincinnati, OH: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, FACE F2004-23, 2004 Oct ; :1-11
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2005
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  92 - Public Administration - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  2002/05/06
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:500d05e627168c8d9aed204d77fda6e99456c3827cb2123d4385a83bf79daf84fa577c268c061497b2ae7edb6acd1df3819c71333bfbe7bb52466404348eb5bc
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/163751/cdc_163751_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 657.24 KB ]