Journal of Korean Living Environment System (한국생활환경학회지)

The Korean Society of Living Environmental System (한국생활환경학회)
권호 표지
DOI QR코드

DOI QR Code

Requirements of Improvement on Personal Protective Equipment and Experiences Exposed to Accidently High Risk Circumstance while Firefighting: A Questionnaire Study

화재진압 중 소방관의 돌발 고위험상황 노출 경험과 개인보호구 개선요구사항 실태조사

  • Lee, Hyo-Hyun (Advanced Institutes of Convergence Technology) ;
  • Kim, Siyeon (Research Institute of Human Ecology, Seoul National University) ;
  • Kim, Do-Hee (Research Institute of Human Ecology, Seoul National University) ;
  • Kim, Do-Hyung (Research Institute of Human Ecology, Seoul National University) ;
  • Lee, Joo-Young (Advanced Institutes of Convergence Technology)
  • Received : 2017.07.06
  • Accepted : 2017.10.27
  • Published : 2017.10.30
⟨ Previous Next ⟩

Abstract

We conducted a nationalwide questionnaire to investigate accidental experiences and injuries at flashover or flame-fire for active firefighters in the line of duty. A total of 794 firefighters participated in this survey (764 males, 27 females, and 3 respondents; $39.2{\pm}8.4yr$ in age, $173.7{\pm}5.1cm$ in height, $73.4{\pm}8.6kg$ in body mass). The results showed that high risk circumstances the most frequently experienced while firefighting in Korea was flashover followed by backdraft, rollover and flameover. At the high risk circumstances the most frequently-experienced injuries were bruise, stabs and burns. Firefighters hoped to reduce the total mass of personal protective equipment (PPE), improve the mobility of the PPE and dexterity of protective gloves, so that they could escape from the high risk circumstances as fast as possible. In particular, requirements for improvement on protective gloves were greater than those on other PPE. The present study suggested that the need for improvements on the current firefighters' PPE to cope with emergency high risk situations in terms of PPE mass reduction and mobility.

Keywords