Occupational Health and Biomechanics in Firefighting
A special issue of Fire (ISSN 2571-6255). This special issue belongs to the section "Fire Social Science".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2026 | Viewed by 125
Special Issue Editors
Interests: tactictical; biomechanics; sports medicine; firefighters
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Firefighting is an occupation characterized by extreme physical demands, complex movement tasks, and hazardous working environments. Firefighters are routinely required to lift, carry, push, pull, crawl, climb and maneuver through confined spaces while wearing heavy personal protective equipment and self-contained breathing apparatus. These occupational demands impose substantial mechanical loads on the musculoskeletal system and contribute to high rates of overexertion injuries, musculoskeletal disorders and degraded movement efficiency. A biomechanical perspective is therefore essential for understanding how task demands, equipment, fatigue and individual characteristics interact to influence injury risk and physical performance in the fire service.
We are pleased to invite you to contribute to the Special Issue entitled “Occupational Health and Biomechanics in Firefighting.” This Special Issue aims to advance biomechanical research that rigorously quantifies and explains the physical demands of firefighting work. The scope includes, but is not limited to, kinematic, kinetic and neuromuscular analyses of firefighting tasks; the effects of load carriage and personal protective equipment on movement patterns and joint loading; balance, postural control and movement variability under fatigue and biomechanical mechanisms underlying both acute injury and cumulative tissue loading.
In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) studies examining how environmental stressors, work–rest cycles and operational contexts influence movement strategies; postural control and dynamic stability and mechanical loading during firefighting tasks. In addition, this Special Issue invites innovative methodological approaches, including wearable sensors, field-based biomechanical assessments, musculoskeletal modeling and data-driven techniques, that translate laboratory findings to real-world firefighting scenarios. Contributions that connect biomechanical insights to injury prevention, training optimization, equipment design and return-to-duty decision-making are particularly relevant. Meanwhile, the Special Issue also welcomes studies on multiple scenarios (e.g., urban building firefighting, forest firefighting and chemical industrial park firefighting) to enrich the content dimensions.
I look forward to receiving your contributions.
Dr. Roger O. Kollock
Dr. Bridget F. Melton
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Fire is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- firefighting biomechanics
- occupational health
- musculoskeletal injury risk
- load carriage and personal protective equipment
- postural control and dynamic stability
- movement variability and fatigue
- wearable sensors
- field-based biomechanical assessment
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.
