• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.10 no.11
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• pp.1297-1306
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• 2015

The introduction of multimedia 119-notification service utilizing smart devices causes firefighters to be more exposed to emotional labor. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of increased emotional labor of firemen on job satisfaction. As a result, the higher the emotional labor of firefighters is, the higher job stress (${\beta}=0.166$, p=0.000) and social support(${\beta}=0.540$, p=0.000) are. But job satisfaction tends to be lower(${\beta}=-0.136$, p=0.000). As they play an important role to protect the safety and property of citizens. their job satisfaction becomes the driving force of their duty. Therefore, we think that some systematic and substantial prevention curriculum to manage their emotional labor is required.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.670-681
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• 2017

Firefighting hoods protect the head, face, and neck areas of officials while they perform firefighting services. The purpose of this study is to investigate the head size of Korean firefighting officials in order to establish the dimensions necessary to construct firefighting hoods. A total of 98 male firefighting officials participated in this study and 11 body dimensions, necessary for the construction of firefighting hoods, were measured. The data collected from the firefighting officials were compared to the general adult male data from the Size Korea national anthropometric study. The heights, weights, head circumferences, head heights, and bitragion arcs of the firefighters were significantly larger than those of general adult males, which shows that firefighting officials generally have larger body and head sizes than general adult males. Based on the results of Pearson's correlation coefficients, head circumference and head height were judged to be the important measurements for the construction of the firefighting hoods. Thus, these two measurements were chosen as the basic dimensions of the cross tabulation analysis. As a result, head circumferences of 57.00~60.99cm and head heights of 23.00~25.99 cm were found to be important measurement ranges among the firefighters. This study is expected to be used as the basis for the creation of firefighting hoods that help to ensure the safe rescue activities for firefighting officials.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.71-74
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• 2015

Obesity and fitness have been identified as key health concerns among USA firefighters yet little is known about the current habits related to exercise and diet. In particular, high-intensity training (HIT) has gained increasing popularity among this population but limited quantitative data are available about how often it is used and the relationship between HIT and other outcomes. Using survey methodology, the current study evaluated self-reported HIT and diet practice among 625 male firefighters. Almost one-third (32.3%) of participants reported engaging in HIT. Body composition, as measured by waist circumference and percentage body fat, was significantly related to HIT training, with HIT participants being approximately half as likely to be classified as obese using body fat [odds ratio (OR) = 0.52, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.34-0.78] or waist circumference (OR = 0.61, 95% CI = 0.37-0.98). Those who engaged in HIT were more than twice as likely as those who did not (OR = 2.24, 95% CI = 1.42-3.55) to meet fitness recommendations. Findings highlight directions for future prevention and intervention efforts.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.116-125
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• 2020

This study intends to provide a model for the establishment of a rehabilitation room for the safety and rehabilitation of firefighters by proposing a basis for the establishment of a firefighter rehabilitation room at disaster sites. To achieve the research objectives, a questionnaire, frequency analysis, and variance analysis were conducted to assess the effectiveness of rehabilitation rooms for firefighters. Based on the results of the research, the policy suggestions for operating an effective rehabilitation room are as follows. An organization of the operation of the rehabilitation room should be established at each firefighting headquarters, and human resources must be secured for the operation of the rehabilitation room. In addition, detailed operating standards such as the operation contents of the rehabilitation room's operation manager and its operator, as well as its operation procedures should be prepared. Additionally, training to improve the rehabilitation room and its understanding is needed.

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

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.334-344
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• 2021

The study has suggested a way to minimize safety accidents found in on-site firefighting activity by analyzing firefighters' [investigation report on accidents to on-sie workers]. The study result is described as follows. First, the result of [investigation report on on-site workers] shows that while accidents are found to most frequently have occurred to low-ranking firefighting officers such as Sobangsa and Sobanggyo and firefighting officers with career of less than 5 years, fire-extinguishing activity proved to be the most prone to accidents in the category of activity. Second, analysis performed to identify variance between injury extent and area based on cause of accident shows statistically significant variance. In addition, the result of verifying difference in cause of accident based on category of activity shows significant difference with 'falling over and sliding' being the highly likely cause of accident in fire containment and rescue activities and 'reckless move' being highly likely case of accident in emergency activities. Third, the result of verifying factors behind the extent of injury done to on-site workers shows that when accident is caused by 'incomplete behavior', it was found that the extent of injury is substantial. It was also found that rescue activity is accompanied by substantial extent of injury. As a solution to this, the study suggested ways to establish, extend and operate safety-specific curriculum for entrants, develop materials regarding risk prognosis training and explicate training-related regulations, set up safety management measure for a single squad team, upgrade performance of private protection equipment, institutionalize SOP by on-site activity stage, materialize and activate swift rescue team and increase objectivity and proficiency of safety accident investigation.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.132-138
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• 2019

This study examined the drinking status to determine the relationship between the AUDIT-K (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test-Korean) and job stress of firefighters. The study subject was 267 firefighters in areas C, K, and P, who were surveyed to investigate their drinking status and job stress. According to the study, the AUDIT-K was 152 people (56.9%) in the normal drinking group and 115 people (43.1%) in the problem drinking group. The most frequent answer of the frequency of drinking was 83 people (31.1%) in the 2-4 times of a month; the amount of drinking was 10 cups or more by 101 people (37.8%) in one sitting; the frequency of heavy drinking was every day in 77 people (28.8%). High group of job stress showed a significantly higher odds ratio with the problem drinking group (OR = 5.458, 95% CI = 1.108-26.886). Among them, the interpersonal relation conflict was found to be a major factor affecting AUDIT-K (OR = .332, 95% CI = .134 - .820). Therefore, their AUDIT-K scores can be lowered by reducing the job stress and interpersonal relation conflicts.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.164-172
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• 2019

This study examined the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)-related variables of firefighters through a systematic literature review. Electronic databases were searched, including RISS, National Assembly Library, NDSL, KmBase. The search terms were PTSD, Post-Traumatic Stress, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Firefighter. Eleven studies from 146 references screened were included. All studies were non-experimental and correlational analyses. The positive correlation factors were age, duration of work, traumatic events, frequency of mobilization, number and strength of traumatic events experienced, work burden, coping method, D-type personality, depression, and anger rumination. The negative correlation factors were resilience, social support, self-esteem. To improve the mental health of firefighters in the future, professional intervention programs should be constructed to improve resilience, social support, and self-esteem, which are protective factors of PTSD.

• Journal of People, Plants, and Environment
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.137-152
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• 2021

Background and objective: This study was carried out to investigate and analyze the preference for plant fragrance and the psychological effects of a agro-healing activity in 101 firefighters aged 39.71 ± 10.94. Methods: For the psychological evaluation, post-traumatic stress symptoms, Korean occupational stress scale short form (KOSS-SF), emotional intelligence, and job satisfaction were surveyed on the Likert scale. For the preference for plant fragrances, 20 ㎕ of commercially available essential oils from four plant species (Mentha spp., Lavandula spp., Citrus limon, C. sinensis) were absorbed into each test paper and provided to the participants. Results: The rate of post-traumatic stress symptoms was high at 37.6% of the firefighters surveyed.. C. limon fragrance had the highest preference among the four plant fragrances, followed by C. sinensis > Mentha spp. > Lavandula spp. with statistically significant difference (F = 14.256, p < .001). The lower their age, income, and position, and higher the education level, the higher the preference for plant fragrances. And the administrative group had higher preference for plant fragrances than field group. In addition, as a result of examining the correlation between job satisfaction, preference for plant fragrance, post-traumatic stress, emotional intelligence, and job stress for fire-fighters, the higher the job satisfaction, the higher the fragrance preference and emotional intelligence, and the lower the post-traumatic stress and job stress. Conclusion: Therefore, installing a garden using botanical fragrances at workplaces that firefighters can easily access will improve job satisfaction and relieve stress. It can be concluded that applying the fragrance of plants to the healing farming activities at the fire-fighter's workplace can increase the usefulness of the healing activities.

• The Korean Journal of Emergency Medical Services
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.137-148
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• 2022

Purpose: This study aims to provide essential data for developing educational methods and content, tailored for the prehospital field situation, by analyzing the effects of education regarding the management of cardiac arrest. Methods: This study is a primitive experimental study of 55 new firefighters in C Fire Service Academy. Data were collected from the training which was imparted using the CPR virtual reality simulation program (CBS 2.0) in accordance with COVID-19 quarantine rules and social distancing. Data were analyzed utilizing SPSS version 25.0. Results: After VR simulation training, knowledge about performing CPR (14.85) and self-efficacy (4.12) were significantly high (p<.001). Learning immersion was also high (3.99±0.59), but learning satisfaction was even higher (4.34±0.62). Depending on the recruitment field, firefighters showed higher learning immersion (4.04±0.58 vs 3.68±0.63) and self-efficacy (4.16±0.55 vs 3.91±0.84) than 119 EMTs' but, there was no significant difference between them. In contrast, The quality of performance of CPR by EMT's was significantly higher than that of firefighters (p=.025). Depending on previous simulation experience, there was no significant difference among dependent variables. Conclusion: Virtual reality simulation shows positive results in learning immersion, learning satisfaction, self-efficacy, and performance of CPR. Therefore, we propose that virtual reality simulation training can be a new educational paradigm.