Awake, smoky and hot
Research findings on the potential impact of fatigue, smoke emissions and heat on firefighters working at bushfires was discussed in the Bushfire CRC Research To Drive Change online forum.
Awake, Smoky and Hot, which was held at 12.30 pm on Monday 22 September, detailed the combined findings of a series of studies for the Bushfire CRC by Dr Brad Aisbett (Deakin University), Professor Sally Ferguson (Central Queensland University), Dr Michelle Short (University of South Australia) and Dr Fabienne Reisen (CSIRO). Robyn Pearce of the Tasmanian Fire Service provided the industry perspective as lead-end user.
One of the studies used innovative lab based simulations to investigate the impact of restricted sleep on firefighter performance at the fireground. More than 90 firefighters from agencies Australia-wide participated in the simulations, held at sites in Adelaide, Canberra and outer Melbourne.
The online forum was open to all interested operational managers, firefighters, incident management team members, workforce managers and workforce safety managers. To replay the entire forum, click here.
To view the indivudal project pages under the ASH program, you can find them at:
- Operational Readiness of Rural Firefighters During Bushfire Suppression project page
- Firefighter Health and Safety (Beyond Endurance Sustaining Operations) project page
- Operational Readiness of Rural Firefighters (Air Toxics) project page
