Battalion Chief Dies as a Result of a Heart Attack that Occurred During Training – Illinois

Details

• 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 February 25, 1998, a 62-year-old male Battalion Chief was found unconscious in his car shortly after performing a training exercise while wearing full turnout gear, including his self-contained breathing apparatus. Resuscitation efforts at the scene, during transport, and at the hospital were unsuccessful. The death certificate and autopsy listed coronary atherosclerosis as the cause of death. The following recommendations address preventative measures that have been recommended by other agencies to reduce, among other things, the risk of on-duty heart attacks and cardiac arrests among fire fighters. These recommendations have not been evaluated by NIOSH, but represent research presented in the literature, consensus votes of technical committees of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), or products of labor/management technical committees within the fire service. This preventative strategy consists of: 1) minimizing physical stress on fire fighters
  
  2) screening to identify and subsequently rehabilitate high risk individuals
  
  and 3) encouraging increased individual physical capacity (fitness). The Department where this Battalion Chief worked has already taken steps to implement these recommendations: provide fire fighters with lighter-weight protective equipment to reduce the physical demands placed upon fire fighters
  
  implement an overall health and safety program such as the one recommended in NFPA 1500, Standard on Fire Department Occupational Safety and Health Program
  
  providing fire fighters with periodic medical evaluations, including a exercise cardiac stress test for those employees above the age of 40 as recommended by NFPA 1582, Standard of Medical Requirements for Fire Fighters
  
  and initiating a wellness/fitness program to reduce risk factors for cardiovascular disease and improve cardiovascular capacity such as the IAFF/IAFC Wellness-Fitness Initiative.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Cardiovascular Diseases Cardiovascular System Emergency Responders Firefighters Fires Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Cardiac-function Cardiovascular-disease Cardiovascular-system-disease Cardiovascular-system-disorders Emergency-responders Fire-fighters Fire-fighting Fire-fighting-equipment Heart OSHA Region 5 Physical-exercise Physical-fitness Physical-stress Physiological-factors

  More +
• FACE - Firefighter:
  Cause of Death: Medical ; Cardiovascular: Heart Attack (Myocardial Infarction, Coronary Artery Disease and Coronary Vascular Disease)
• Series:
  Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program (FFFIPP)
• Subseries:
  Death in the Line of Duty Report
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHFFFACE99F20
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study ; Report
• Place as Subject:
  Illinois ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSR - Division of Safety Research
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-9
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20000950
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2003-107697
• Citation:
  Morgantown, WV: 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 99-F20, 2000 Dec ; :1-9
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2001
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  92 - Public Administration - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  1998/02/25
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:6f0c1d4ddf26307510d4a7cdab9c8eb0bb3540632921bdef2ec6a5c2541ada07aee4832f9a846a9484ef539b587f612883e2e5ff91cb42474c19a812eb488168
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/163922/cdc_163922_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 446.09 KB ]