Summer Weather Presents Deadly Challenges for Firefighters

(KNSI) – Fighting fires in the summer presents unique challenges and risks.

KNSI News asked St. Cloud Fire Department Battalion Chief Jerry Raymond when are conditions are hot enough to be a concern?

“I think we’re in that even today. I know the temperature is about 80. I don’t know what the heat index is today. But when that heat index starts breaking over 90, it’s starting to be a concern. We need to stay out of the direct sunlight and make sure we’re hydrated, and our body temperature stays normal in the normal range.”

Raymond says that he encourages firefighters to drink a lot of water on hot days and rotate firefighters through a scene faster, leading to a more considerable strain on the department.

“So it requires us to a lot of times calling additional resources either from our own department or a lot of times mutual aid companies to come in to backfill and to take those extra work shifts, I guess, for lack of a better term to keep everybody. Hopefully, everybody’s temperatures in the normal range.”

Raymond says part of the issue is the gear firefighters need to wear to stay safe from the flames.

“We’re throwing firefighters in the black suits, which are basically big heavy oven mitts, and then a they’er going into a fire scene, and those suits absorb the heat from the fire, it can become a very dangerous situation.”

He says no one with the SCFD has gotten heatstroke yet.

Earlier this month, Minnesota hit record or near-record temperatures and is in drought conditions.

Raymond says the dry weather also increases the risk of wild and grass fires getting out of control.

___