• Journal of the Korean Burn Society
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.12-15
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• 2016

Purpose: Firefighters are vulnerable to burn injury during firefighting. In extensive fires, conducted heat and radiant heat can cause burn injury even though firefighters are not directly exposed to fire. There has been increasing interest in the health problems of firefighters considerably since Hongje-dong fire of 2001, which claimed the lives of six fireman. However, there have been no studies done on the characteristics of firefighter burn injuries in South Korea. Therefore, we investigated the characteristics of firefighter burn injuries in a burn center. Methods: A retrospective, single-center research was performed between Jan 2006 to Dec 2015. 24 firefighters came to the burn center. The electronic medical records of patients were reviewed. Results: Flame burns (87.5%) were the major cause of burn in firefighter. All the patients suffered second-degree or third-degree burns. Mean burn size was 6.1±6.7%. 22 of 24 patients were hospitalized and 2 of 22 hospitalized patients admitted to intensive care unit. Mean length of hospitalization was 29.1±23.7 days and mean length of intensive care unit hospitalization was 6.0±1.4 days. The face was the site most commonly burned, representing 25.8% of injuries. The hand/wrist, upper extremity, and neck were the next largest groups, with 19.4, 12.9, 11.3% of the injuries, respectively. Conclusion: Firefighter burn injuries occur to predictable anatomic sites with common injury patterns. The burn size was small but, admitted patients need about 30 days of hospitalization.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.136-147
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to analyze four cases of firefighter burns in various fire scenes and to find prevention measures to decrease firefighter injuries. Among the analysis reports prepared by the National Fire Research Institute of Korea from 2016 to 2020, four burn-related accidents are summarized and the main causes are conveyed. The four accidents include second-degree burns from using extinguishers during containment of fires; nine firefighters burned due to re-ignition in the LPG car repair shop; two firefighters injured with third-degree burns from using fire extinguishers during life-saving events in residential housing; and injuries from the radiant heat of the tank BLEVE near the factory fire. These cases are comprehensively investigated in their respective scenes and analyzed based on the fire site investigation reports from the fire department and related theoretical explanations of risk for each accident scene. In the third case study, some experimental research is conducted to evaluate the risk involved with the use of safety gloves. This is evaluated by reviewing Fire Tactics and Standard Operational Procedures (SOP) to determine improvements and recommendations for an efficient firefighting response. Results show that the main causes of burn accidents are the insufficient use of personal protective equipment (PPE), such as safety gloves, and the failure to follow firefighting tactics or SOPs. Through the accident investigation and assessment, it is concluded that to reduce the frequency of burn accidents, the performance of firefighting equipment, SOPs, protection tactics, and safety policy systems require improvement.

• The Korean Journal of Emergency Medical Services
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.59-71
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• 2017

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to evaluate the ergonomic risk factors of 119 emergency medical technicians (EMT) with musculoskeletal disorders, performing emergency medical services (EMS) procedures in a firefighter combat challenge. Methods: The evaluated EMT procedures were cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) & intubation, trauma patient assessment, and intravenous (IV) injection. Measurement of working posture was done during training. Results: In CPR & intubation, OWAS-score was 2 (mean 1.9, maximum 4), requiring correction action, while REBA-score was 11 (mean 7.28, maximum 11), requiring immediate improvement. In trauma patient assessment & IV injection, OWAS-score was 4 (mean 2.9, maximum 4), requiring immediate correction action, while the REBA score was 7 (mean 7.5, maximum 11), requiring improvement. Conclusion: Both OWAS score and REBA-score showed improvement of posture and high-risk of musculoskeletal disorders. Occupational health management in EMS procedures during combat challenge and effective injury prevention program in fire stations are warranted.

• The Korean Journal of Emergency Medical Services
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.71-85
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• 2006

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship among the variables, personality type, stress, and job satisfaction in firefighters. Methods: The questionnaire research was conducted for field service firefighters who work in two cities for the period of June 20, 2005 through July 20, 2005. A total number of 308 data were used for this analysis. For analysis of the data, the SPSSWIN 10.0 program was used to analyze descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, t-test and one-way ANOVA. Results: The mean score of subjects' stress was 3.30 and the mean score of job satisfaction was 2.86. There were significant differences on stress and job satisfaction by general characteristics. Stress was significantly differed by field of working. Job satisfaction was significantly differed by marital status and field of working. Also, there were significant differences on stress and job satisfaction by characteristics related to working. Stress was significantly differed by sleeping time at night shift, witness their superior's or companion's death or injury, and a threat to death or injury. Job satisfaction was significantly differed by an aptitude for field of working and wish to change the field of working. But there was no significant differences on stress and job satisfaction by personality type. There was statistically significant negative correlation between stress and job satisfaction. Conclusion: Strategies that can decrease their stress need to be developed to increase job satisfaction.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.231-237
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• 2017

Objectives: This study was conducted to determine firefighters' work-related accident rate and investigate the factors affecting their on-site safety. Methods: We developed a web-based self-reported questionnaire designed to inquire into firefighters' work-related accident experience and the factors (4M; Man, Machine, Media, Management) affecting firefighters' on-site safety. We distributed questionnaires to all members of firefighting organizations in South Korea by e-mail and 9,149 were returned, resulting in a response rate of 23.1%. Results: Fifteen point seven percent of the respondents reported work-related injuries within the past one year, and 35.1% answered that current accident investigation reports are not helpful for preventing the same accident from recurring. Among the 4M factors, the one most affecting firefighters' on-site safety in the order of priority is the Man factor, followed by Machine, Media, and Management. However, the results from detailed sub-categorical factors showed some differences. 'Lack of human resources', one of the Management factors, was the most influential (70.3%), followed by 'worn-out equipment' under the Machine factor (67.2%). The viewpoint of elements of the Man factor including 'forgetting instructions' and 'fatigue and illness' were significantly different according to firefighters' rank. The higher the firefighter's rank, the more they answered 'forgetting instructions,' while the opposite was the case for 'fatigue and disease'. Conclusions: The present firefighters' accident investigation report needs to be improved, and the 4M method could prove very useful. In addition, it is necessary to set up a proper firefighters' accident investigation and prevention system.

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