The professional firefighters are just small amount of people who come when we need rescuers. Part of the rescue task are solved by voluntary fire fighters. Voluntary fire fighters/rescuers are people whose civilian profession can be anything but firefighting, but when they can, they also come when for example fire breaks up or there is a car accident.
To understand how important the voluntary fire brigade is, take a look at these numbers: In Satakunta region, 300 people works in 7 rescue departments as a fulltime rescuers. But there are 49 contract fire brigades where are another 800 people. And their role in the emergencies is not replaceable, they solve half of the approximately 5000 emergencies in Satakunta area.
This interesting “hobby” is very responsible and physically very demanding – especially more demanding tasks like smoke diving. In Finland, there is a physical fitness test, called FireFit that is designed for rescuers. In Satakunta area, Service Centre Soteekki is conducting those tests for voluntary fire fighters. The meaning of this “PETE” test, as we call it in Soteekki”, is to make sure, that the fire fighter is able to deal with the physical aspect of rescue tasks. PETE test consists of interview, bicycle-ergometer test and muscle strength test. The parts have to go exactly in this order. The value from ergometry and strength test (in strength test, each task is evaluated separately) we compare with table value and that gives FireFit-index. Index is from 1-5 and client have to get at least index 1 in all parts of the test and total index 3 to be able to pass the test.
During interview we find out if there are any risk factors, which can cause complication during test. We ask about current condition, if client had cold earlier and if had physical or mental difficult days. Also, there are questions about abuses, for example nicotine and alcohol. In last part we ask about most common disease, as a high blood pressure, hight cholesterol, we also want to know if somebody in family suffer from this disease. After interview we measure blood pressure, weight and waistline measure.
In physical test we start with bicycle-ergometer. Ergometer is a stationary bike, that can increase the resistance in pedals. The resistance is calculated from parameters we put in the program. During ergometer test we measure heartbeat, blood pressure and oxygen saturation (SpO2%). The test approximately takes around 20-25 minutes. First 4 minutes is warm up, another three or four round we increase the bike resistance and measure values and last 4 minutes is cool down. The test assesses cardiovascular fitness and endurance by using intelligent algorithms that take into account the clients background factors, such as weight and maximum heart rate, and changes in heart rate during the test when resistance is increased. The most important value is VO2max, we compare them with table value and get the index.
Strength test includes squatting, sitting up, bench press and chin ups. Squatting and bench press are done with 45 kg weights. Client need to do as many reps as possible during 1 minute. In sit up test there is also 1 minute time limit. The chin ups don´t depend on time we just count how many repetitions client can do. Same as value from ergometer we compare value with table and get the index.
Recourses:
Orientation materials of Service Centre Soteekki