In this issue:

• Featured Topic: Incident Management Stress
• Research: Field Studies of Firefighters
• Risk Management: Firefighter Fatalities
• Field Notes: Fitness and Work Capacity

Background

This report, the 12th in a series, reviews activities related to the Missoula Technology and Development Center (MTDC) project on wildland firefighter health and safety. The project focuses on three areas:

Work, rest, and fatigue: Determine work/rest guidelines, assignment length, and fatigue countermeasures for crews and overhead teams.

Energy and nutrition: Improve the energy intake, nutrition, hydration, immune function, and health of wildland firefighters.

Fitness and work capacity: Use work capacity and medical standards to ensure the health, safety, and productivity of wildland firefighters.

Human Factors

The Featured Topic of this report focuses on incident management teams and the influence of job-related stress on the health and performance of their members. These teams provide the organization and structure that underlie effective wildland firefighting operations in the United States. The teams also coordinate and manage the responses to a broad category of other natural and manmade disasters. Team members work in highly charged, emotionally demanding conditions. MTDC is documenting job-related stress, identifying ways to manage the stress, and evaluating ways to improve the health and performance of team members.

The Research section reviews project-related field studies of wildland firefighters during the 2007 fire season, including shift food (intermittent feeding), hydration, and health risks for members of incident management teams. The Risk Management section reviews recent data on the causes of wildland firefighter fatalities. The Field Notes section previews the forthcoming third edition of "Fitness and Work Capacity."

An incident management team member
conducts a morning briefing.