MILTON, Ga. — The intense heat gripping Metro Atlanta is especially hard on those who have to work in it, including first responders.
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At the Milton Fire Department, crews are taking extra precautions to protect themselves in temperatures reaching the upper 90s.
“Imagine wearing a really heavy sauna suit,” firefighter Agata Sarkis told Channel 2′s Bryan Mims as she put on her multi-layered turnout gear. “It’s not only heavy, it’s bulky and it’s really hot. Your body cannot breathe through it.”
Heat exhaustion is a real danger for firefighters. When the temperature reaches the mid-90s, Milton firefighters are limited to working 15 minutes at a fire scene before they’re required to rest and cool down. That means extra firefighters are called out to the scene to relieve them.
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“We bring a second alarm almost immediately, because of the short work cycles,” said Milton’s deputy fire chief Mark Stephens. “We want to rotate crews in and out – 15-minute work cycles max – before we start to see heat-related illnesses in the firefighters.”
After 15 minutes of work, the firefighters go through “rehab,” which includes cooling off, rehydrating and checking blood pressure. When crews are dispatched to a fire scene, the department’s support unit also rolls out.
Steve Cory founded the Milton Fire Corps, a group of volunteers whose mission is to provide care for firefighters on the scene. “We have cold towels, ice cold towels that we put on their head or on their neck,” he said. “You want to cool them down – not dramatically cool them down – but cool them down as quickly as we can.”
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The firefighters’ physical training also helps them handle extreme heat.
“They prepare, they work out, they stay in shape, but this heat is dangerous and we take every precaution we can,” Stephens said.
When temperatures hit the mid-90s, he said, firefighters avoid physical training outside.
Since turnout gear retains body heat, firefighters say it’s essential to have shortened work cycles.
“When you’re wearing this gear and you have your pack on and you’re carrying tools, 15 minutes can feel like over an hour,” she said.
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