Employment Standards for Australian Urban Firefighters

Developing the Canadian initial attack (IA) wildland fire fighter (WFF) physical employment standard (WFX-FIT) began in a previous investigation with a physical demands analysis in which hand and back carrying a 28.5 kg pump, back carrying a 25 kg hose pack and advancing charged hose were identified as the critical IA emergency tasks. In the present study, a circuit was created incorporating simulations of the critical tasks with faster completion times required for provinces with more arduous terrains. The oxygen cost (mean ± SD VO mL∙kg∙min) of performing IA WFF tasks sequentially on the job was 37 ± 6 compared to 37 ± 4 when performing the WFX-FIT, indicating strong construct validity. Content validation ratings comparing the likeness of on-the-job tasks to simulated tasks in the WFX-FIT provided strong agreement. These validations confirm that the physical demands involved in performing the WFX-FIT are the same as IA wildland fire fighting. Practitioner Summary: This paper details the process used to develop and validate the physical employment standard for jurisdictional employment and national exchange of IA WFF. The range of cut-scores reflects the differences in jurisdictional physical demands due to terrain difficulty, fire management policy on fire risk and forest value index.

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Physical employment standard for Canadian wildland fire fighters; developing and validating the test protocol

Gumieniak

Gledhill

Jamnik

2018

Ergonomics

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Physical employment standard for Canadian wildland firefighters: examining test–retest reliability and the impact of familiarisation and physical fitness training

2018

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To assess the impact of repeat performances (familiarisation) plus exercise training on completion time for the Ontario Wildland Firefighter (WFF) Fitness Test circuit (WFX-FIT), normally active general population participants (n = 145) were familiarised to the protocol then randomised into (i) exercise training, (ii) circuit only weekly performances or (iii) controls. At Baseline, the WFX-FIT pass rate for all groups combined was 11% for females and 73% for males, indicating that the Ontario WFX-FIT standard had a possible adverse impact on females. Following test familiarisation, mean circuit completion times improved by 11.9% and 10.2% for females and males, respectively. There were significant improvements in completion time for females (19.8%) and males (16.9%) who trained, plus females (12.2%) and males (9.8%) who performed the circuit only, while control participants were unchanged. Post training, the pass rate of the training group was 80% for females and 100% for males. Practitioner Summary: This paper details the impact of familiarisation plus exercise training as accommodation to mitigate potential adverse impact on initial attack wildland firefighter test performance. The results underscore the importance of test familiarisation opportunities and physical fitness training programmes that are specific to the demands of the job.

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Is muscular strength a critical physical attribute for the apprehension of a simulated non-compliant suspect?

et al. 2021

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Employment Standards for Australian Urban Firefighters

Abstract: Because three tests provided predicted performance speeds to replicate the oxygen cost of firefighters performing the corresponding occupational simulations, notional performance thresholds could be projected and recommended for the final phase of this research.

Cited by 15 publications

References 30 publications

Physical employment standard for Canadian wildland fire fighters; developing and validating the test protocol

Physical employment standard for Canadian wildland fire fighters; developing and validating the test protocol

Physical employment standard for Canadian wildland firefighters: examining test–retest reliability and the impact of familiarisation and physical fitness training

Is muscular strength a critical physical attribute for the apprehension of a simulated non-compliant suspect?

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