• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
• /
• v.26 no.4
• /
• pp.218-226
• /
• 2017

Purpose: The study aimed to determine the impact of post-traumatic stress and ways of stress coping on problem drinking in firefighters. Methods: Data were collected from May 11 to June 11, 2015, in fire brigades across South Korea. Participants were 183 male firefighters who used self-report questionnaires containing questions from the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R), Ways of Coping Checklist (WCC), and Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). Data were analyzed using $x^2$ test, t-test, and logistic regression with the SPSS/WIN 21.0 program. Results: The prevalence of PTSD among firefighters was 36.7% and that of problem drinking was 39.3%. Firefighters with single (OR=0.23, 95% CI=0.038~1.321) and married status (OR=0.46, 95% CI=0.069~3.040) were less likely to have problem drinking than those who were divorced or bereavement. Those with invasion symptoms (OR=1.17, 95% CI=1.031~1.327) and hyperarousal symptoms (OR=0.85, 95% CI=0.722~0.989) were more likely to have problem drinking than those with avoidance symptoms. Conclusion: Post-traumatic stress symptom was a major risk factor that increased problem drinking, and married status reduced problem drinking. There is a need to develop post-traumatic stress symptom management program and early education content for symptom management.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
• /
• v.11 no.10
• /
• pp.571-576
• /
• 2013

The purpose of this study is to investigate work related diseases in Korean firefighters and to prepare the preventive measure for health management for the firefighters. Structured self-reported questionnaire was distributed to the firefighters. The result revealed that 37.7% of fire fighters had chronic diseases and 12.3% had chronic low back pains. The affected parts included lumbar region(41.5%), shoulder(33.0%), and neck(23.6%). The affected parts caused physical pain and work discomfort for more than a month. A total of 54.1% firefighters visited to the hospital within a year. This results suggest that it is necessary to develop the health promotion program for the prevention of musculoskeletal disease and regular health checkup for the acute disorders caused by workload.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
• /
• v.23 no.4
• /
• pp.515-526
• /
• 2021

This study aimed to investigate the evaluation of firefighting gloves and the behavior regarding their usage, of firefighting officials in Seoul, using a questionnaire. Responses from a total of 270 firefighters who are responsible for putting out fires or undertaking rescue works in Seoul were analyzed. As per the findings, the firefighters considered ease of hand operation and fire/flame protection as the most important performance factors for firefighting gloves, and they were satisfied with the supply status of the gloves. The average number of firefighting gloves currently owned by the firefighters was 2.6 ± 0.8 pairs. Thirty-nine percent of the respondents said that their firefighting gloves lasted, with maintained performance, for more than six months and less than a year, and when asked how they handled the gloves with degraded performance, 46% of them said that they would discard them. Sixty-eight percent of the respondents said that they used the most recently developed and supplied gloves, which they considered as the most satisfying gloves and which they mainly used these days. Respondents were highly satisfied with the fire/flame protection performance of their firefighting gloves, but were less satisfied, however, with the glove fit. These results suggest that there has been a significant improvement in the overall performance level and supply status of the firefighting gloves. Given the current situation, careful considerations with flexible approaches are needed on the current firefighting gloves size system as well as on the personal protective equipment maintenance and management scheme.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
• /
• v.24 no.3
• /
• pp.1-14
• /
• 2022

This study is a plan on the way to strengthen the survival ability by increasing the use time of air respirator by applying emergency breathing method in the situation where firefighter has to wait for RIT (Rapid Intervention Teams) because it is impossible to escape by himself or emergency escape during isolation during field activities. The research procedure first drew problems by conducting a survey on fire fighters under the Seoul Fire and Disaster Headquarters, and conducted an experiment to compare normal breathing and emergency breathing with 20 members of the Seoul 119 Special Rescue Team, and suggested emergency breathing method and training process modeling that can be applied to each field situation based on the data obtained. The experiment was conducted over 9 weeks, and it was divided into three categories: field activity situation, movement (emergency escape assumption) situation, and place (assume waiting for RIT). In the field activity situation experiment, it was confirmed that the application of skip breathing method was appropriate and the use time of air respirator increased about 1.6 ~ 1.9 times. In the moving situation or the in-situ situation, wheel breathing method was appropriate and the use time of air respirator increased about 1.6 ~ 2.4 times. However, when conducting intense activities in the field activity situation, it is recommended to use it limitedly because it is difficult to apply the emergency breathing method. If emergency breathing is not clearly learned in the body, it is difficult to use in the field, so I think systematic and continuous training is necessary. This study suggests that the application of emergency breathing method is effective enough to strengthen the survival ability of firefighters in the field.

• Fire Science and Engineering
• /
• v.28 no.1
• /
• pp.58-63
• /
• 2014

This study was performed to propose measures to improve and secure safety in the scene activities of firefighters. First, the majority of firefighters thought that working environment and equipment in fire station were inadequate for perforeming work tasks safely. Second, influential factors threatening safe scene activities mainly arose externally such as insecure working conditions of firefighting or emergency scene. Third, improvement in working environments was pointed out as the most urgent issue to secure safety. Firefighters recognized the expansion of field workforce in system, personnel management and the foundation of hospitals for firefighters hospital in working environment, and the development and distribution of safe equipment and change and inspection of air respirator facepiece on regular basis in equipment as urgent issues to be improved.

• Fire Science and Engineering
• /
• v.29 no.6
• /
• pp.98-108
• /
• 2015

An integrated command system is critical for the safety of firefighters and effective work in the headquarters of a special disaster areas such as natural disaster or large man-made hazard. The integrated command system requires environmental information such as temperature, humidity, and $CO_2$ levels, as well as personal physical information such as pulse and air respirator levels. An Analog to Digital Converter (ADC) chip converts sensed information into digital signals, and a Micro Controller Unit (MCU) transmits the digital signals to a transmission board using serial communication through a Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI). The digital signals are saved in a transmission board and transmitted to the integrated command system by a Radio Frequency (RF) unit. The location of fire-fighters in a building are determined using a gyro sensor and an inertial sensor. The collected information is applied to the integrated command system for firefighter safety and to ensure that they can effectively carry out their duties. Tthis study theoretically and experimentally investigated the technologies of RF transmission, indoor position, and an integrated command system that supports decision making using the transmitted information.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
• /
• v.18 no.2
• /
• pp.355-360
• /
• 2023

Fire is a disaster that causes irreversible damage to many people due to personal injury and property damage. Various fire detection equipments are installed around us to detect and cope with it quickly. However, due to various problems such as artificial, environmental, and aging, fire detection equipment is activated even though it is not a actual fire, and there are many problems such as delaying the support to the necessary fire scene. In this paper, we analyze the non-fire alarm of the fire detection equipment and propose a system that enables the field staff to check the scene situation through the video as a way to prevent the mobilization due to the misinformation by checking the fire. The purpose of the present invention is to stably cope with a disaster by suggesting a customized automatic guidance system which induces a rapid evacuation by sending an evacuation guidance notification to a range of a fire occurrence neighboring area, and supports a rapid and accurate processing by a rapid dispatch of a firefighter, rather than a wide range of guidance such as an existing emergency disaster guidance letter when it is determined to be an actual fire through the confirmation procedure.

• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• v.14 no.1
• /
• pp.71-77
• /
• 2023

Background: This study investigated the relationship between trauma exposure and suicidal ideation. Moreover, this study examines the moderating roles of organizational climate on the association between trauma exposure and suicidal ideation in Korean male firefighters. Methods: A total of 15,104 male firefighters who completed a questionnaire were analyzed. The data were obtained using an online self-administered questionnaire from the Firefighter Research on Enhancement of Safety and Health Study. Poisson regression analysis was performed to determine the effects of trauma exposure on suicidal ideation and the moderating effect of organizational climate. Results: The results showed that 389 firefighters (2.6%) responded that they had experienced suicidal ideation. In the final model, trauma exposure was positively related to suicidal ideation (adjusted risk ratio [aRR], 1.076; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.051-1.103), and organizational climate was negatively associated with suicidal ideation (aRR, 0.772; 95% CI: 0.739-0.806). Additionally, the interaction term (trauma exposure × organizational climate) was related to suicidal ideation (aRR, 1.016; 95% CI: 1.009-1.023). Conclusions: This study suggests that trauma exposure might play a significant role in developing suicidal ideation and that positive organizational climate moderates the negative effects of trauma exposure on suicidal ideation among firefighters. It is necessary to perform a follow-up study of various intervention strategies to maintain a healthy organizational climate or work environment. Such interventions should promote lasting trust within teams, provide social support and belonging, and nurture job value.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.19 no.3
• /
• pp.520-529
• /
• 2019

This study is intended to provide basic data for health management of firefighters in the future by empirically looking into health hazard factors of firefighters in Busan City. It was revealed that firstly, the danger of harmful chemicals in a fire was perceived the most by firefighters, who extinguish a fire in person on the scene of a fire, and it was followed by the danger of falling while putting out a fire. This study is intended to provide basic data for health management of firefighters in the future by empirically looking into health hazard factors of firefighters in Busan City. It was revealed that firstly, the danger of harmful chemicals in a fire was perceived the most by firefighters, who extinguish a fire in person on the scene of a fire, and it was followed by the danger of falling while putting out a fire. Moreover, the danger of shift work was perceived the most by paramedics. This corresponds to the existing studies arguing that shift work is harmful to health. Next, the overload of patient transport was recognized as the second biggest hazard factor. This demonstrates they are worried about various second accidents that may happen due to a lot of patient transport works. In addition, the possibility of causing a traffic accident was perceived as a hazard factor too, since they must drive ambulance cars quickly to transport patients. Lastly, rescue workers regarded these hazard factors to be most dangerous. This is associated with their occupational characteristics, because rescue workers are the closest to diverse risks including a fire.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.22 no.3
• /
• pp.398-407
• /
• 2021

Firefighters (who are responsible for people's safety) have one of the jobs that are expected to have problems due to aging in the workforce. An increase in the average age of firefighters can lead to serious social problems. The aim of this study is to survey firefighters in Jeollanam-do about their awareness of aging in firefighters, and to propose a plan to prepare them for aging through investigation and analysis of work problems that may occur due to an aging workforce. The survey shows that the higher the age group, the higher the awareness of aging firefighters, and the higher the total work experience and internal/external work experience, the higher the awareness of aging. As a plan to solve various problems that may arise from aging in firefighters, regular operation of physical fitness promotion programs, field work, job rotation, and managerial measures (such as a change of position to an administrative department) are prepared, and drone or robot technology is used. These solutions include the introduction of applied high-tech technologies to firefighting activities, establishment of retirement management policies, and preparation of plans to revitalize the connection to private employment. In order to maximize the applicability of the field, government institutional plans and preparations are essential.