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Bushfire fighters should not adopt the heavy protective clothing
of their urban counterparts, a study by Worksafe Australia and the CSIRO
Division of Forestry and Forest Products has found. The study monitored the
physiology of men fighting bushfires of different intensity. It showed that
firefighters in rural areas, whose work centres around containing moving fire
fronts by cutting firebreaks, tend to be most comfortable working near the limits
of their capacity. They maintain body temperatures and heart rates akin to
people working out in a gym. With any additional heat load, rural firefighters
quickly succumb to heatstroke. Clothing, therefore, should be designed to let
heat out, not keep it in, says CSIRO fire researcher Phil Cheney. In the
bush, the standard firefighting gear of a strong pair of boots, woollen socks, a
pair of overalls, a tee-shirt and a safety helmet is almost ideal. Heavier
protective clothing, Cheney says, gives a false sense of security and dulls the
body’s ability to sense when it is time to leave a fire threatened area.