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Get a yearly physical...PLEASE
The death of firefighter James O'Shea during the weekend highlighted a fact little-known to the public but one that firefighters live with every day: More firefighters die from heart attacks than from fires.
The silent killer often strikes after they are back in the firehouse or at home. Firefighter James O'Shea, who worked in Queens and lived in Holbrook, was the latest victim. Although he made it home Saturday night, his death was listed as duty-related because colleagues saw that he was uncomfortable and because he left work early after fighting a fire in Kew Gardens. The city Fire Department, after consultations with the Uniformed Firefighters Association, O'Shea's union, listed his death as occurring in the line of duty, making his family eligible for increased benefits. But the death still raised the sensitive issue of how much the Fire Department should monitor the health of its workers, whose job carries high mental and physical stress.
Of the 97 on-duty firefighter deaths in the United States last year, 37 were from heart attacks, according to a July report by the National Fire Protection Association.
"Stress and overexertion, usually resulting in heart attacks, continued to be the leading cause of fatal injury, as it has been in almost all of the years of this study," according to the report by the group, which develops standards for fire protection.
Unlike some other jurisdictions, the city Fire Department has no continuing program for firefighter fitness training.
Some departments require daily physical training, called PT for short, in the firehouse, others work out at local parks or accept free workouts at a local gym, according to Rich Duffy, who specializes in health, safety and medical issues for the International Association of Fire Fighters, an umbrella union.
"We have always recommended that guys do PT one hour a day," Duffy said in an interview. "Some have regimented PT and some have less formal PT."
Fire Department spokesman Frank Gribbon said that although there is no department requirement, "most firehouses have a gym and most firefighters have their own training regimen.
"We do perform annual physicals, not quite annual, but that is our goal," he said. "It is now in the range of 15 to 18 months." O'Shea was found fit for duty at his last physical in December 2001.
The department started compiling data on firefighter weight and body fat more than a decade ago. The study showed that first-year firefighters gained just five pounds on average in 2000, down from a gain of 15 pounds in 1995. The data became public in February 2001 after three firefighters died of line-of-duty heart attacks within a four-month period.
The silent killer often strikes after they are back in the firehouse or at home. Firefighter James O'Shea, who worked in Queens and lived in Holbrook, was the latest victim. Although he made it home Saturday night, his death was listed as duty-related because colleagues saw that he was uncomfortable and because he left work early after fighting a fire in Kew Gardens. The city Fire Department, after consultations with the Uniformed Firefighters Association, O'Shea's union, listed his death as occurring in the line of duty, making his family eligible for increased benefits. But the death still raised the sensitive issue of how much the Fire Department should monitor the health of its workers, whose job carries high mental and physical stress.
Of the 97 on-duty firefighter deaths in the United States last year, 37 were from heart attacks, according to a July report by the National Fire Protection Association.
"Stress and overexertion, usually resulting in heart attacks, continued to be the leading cause of fatal injury, as it has been in almost all of the years of this study," according to the report by the group, which develops standards for fire protection.
Unlike some other jurisdictions, the city Fire Department has no continuing program for firefighter fitness training.
Some departments require daily physical training, called PT for short, in the firehouse, others work out at local parks or accept free workouts at a local gym, according to Rich Duffy, who specializes in health, safety and medical issues for the International Association of Fire Fighters, an umbrella union.
"We have always recommended that guys do PT one hour a day," Duffy said in an interview. "Some have regimented PT and some have less formal PT."
Fire Department spokesman Frank Gribbon said that although there is no department requirement, "most firehouses have a gym and most firefighters have their own training regimen.
"We do perform annual physicals, not quite annual, but that is our goal," he said. "It is now in the range of 15 to 18 months." O'Shea was found fit for duty at his last physical in December 2001.
The department started compiling data on firefighter weight and body fat more than a decade ago. The study showed that first-year firefighters gained just five pounds on average in 2000, down from a gain of 15 pounds in 1995. The data became public in February 2001 after three firefighters died of line-of-duty heart attacks within a four-month period.
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