Development of role-related minimum cardiorespiratory fitness standards for firefighters and commanders

Abstract

A minimum cardiorespiratory fitness standard was derived for firefighters following a metabolic demands analysis. Design and minimal acceptable performance of generic firefighting task simulations (i.e. hose running, casualty evacuation, stair climb, equipment carry, wild-land fire) were endorsed by a panel of operationally experienced experts. Sixty-two UK firefighters completed these tasks wearing a standard protective firefighting ensemble while being monitored for peak steady-state metabolic demand and cardiovascular strain. Four tasks, endorsed as valid operational simulations by ≥90% of participants (excluding wild-land fire; 84%), were deemed to be a sufficiently valid and reliable basis for a fitness standard. These tasks elicited an average peak steady-state metabolic cost of 38.1 ± 7.8 ml kg⁻¹ min⁻¹. It is estimated that healthy adults can sustain the total duration of these tasks (~16 min) at ≤90% maximum oxygen uptake and a cardiorespiratory fitness standard of ≥42.3 ml kg⁻¹ min⁻¹ would be required to sustain work.

Practitioner Summary: A cardiorespiratory fitness standard for firefighters of ≥42.3 ml kg⁻¹ min⁻¹ was derived from monitoring minimum acceptable performance of essential tasks. This study supports the implementation of a routine assessment of this fitness standard for all UK operational firefighters, to ensure safe physical preparedness for occupational performance.

Keywords:

• Physical demands analysis
• metabolic cost
• oxygen uptake
• firefighting
• role-related fitness
• physical employment standards

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to the Fire Service College for allowing use of their facilities during data collection. We are also grateful to the UK Fire and Rescue Service personnel that volunteered and acted as participants in this study and to their services for supporting this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.