Search Results (27)

Firefighting is a physically, mentally, and emotionally demanding occupation. These demands are exacerbated by an increase in workload, resulting in an increase in stress and a decrease in recovery. While researchers have examined the influence of workload on stress perceptions, little is known about firefighter perceptions of recovery generally, and no research investigating perceptions of holistic recovery (i.e., physical, mental, and emotional) exists. The purpose of this study was to determine the association between acute workload (i.e., call volume) and firefighter perceptions of stress and recovery from pre-shift to post-shift. Sixteen active-duty firefighters completed the Short Recovery and Stress Scale pre- and post-shift and reported call volume after every shift (N = 156 total shifts). Repeated measures correlations were used to examine the common intraindividual associations between pre- to post-shift perceptions of recovery and stress and call volume. Results indicated that as call volume increased, firefighters perceived themselves to be significantly less recovered overall [r_rm (139) = −0.22, p < 0.001], physically [r_rm (139) = −0.31, p < 0.001], mentally [r_rm (139) = −0.26, p < 0.001], and emotionally [r_rm (139) = −0.27, p < 0.005] and significantly more stressed overall [r_rm (139) = 0.28, p < 0.001], mentally [r_rm (139) = 0.25, p < 0.005], and emotionally [r_rm (139) = 0.21, p = 0.012] post-shift compared to pre-shift. These findings suggest that to optimize firefighter health and well-being, practitioners should monitor call volume and implement appropriate physical, mental, and/or emotional recovery interventions. Full article

This study aimed to develop the Five Cognitive Biases in Risk-Taking Scale (5 CBR-S) to measure five cognitive biases associated with risk-taking: overconfidence, illusion of control, belief in the law of small numbers, escalation of commitment, and optimism. Firefighters completed a series of five questionnaires: cognitive biases related to risk-taking, emotional intelligence, self-regulation behaviors, personality traits, and mental toughness. Data were collected from two distinct samples, each consisting of 202 firefighters. A series of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses conducted on an initial version of the 5 CBR-S with 50 items provided structural evidence supporting a 5-factor, 19-item solution. Evidence of validity and reliability for the 5 CBR-S scores was provided by examining correlations with emotional intelligence, personality traits, and mental toughness. Overall, despite certain limitations, the 5 CBR-S constitutes a robust measure, offering the advantage of highlighting the five main cognitive biases related to risk-taking. It can be used both among firefighters and in other professional contexts involving high-intensity emergency decision-making. Full article

Many barriers prevent ranchers from supporting prescribed fire on grazing leases or their own land. Barriers include negative perceptions of fire resources limitations, and fear of liability. We surveyed ranching landowners around four National Grasslands in North and South Dakota—public grazinglands managed by the USDA Forest Service—to assess landowner attitudes towards prescribed fire and provide insight into the barriers to using prescribed burning on the National Grasslands. Respondents reported being motivated by an interest in stewardship and want managers to prioritize sound science in decision-making on the National Grasslands. But respondents generally had negative perceptions of fire and reported little awareness of potential benefits. With respect to prescribed fire, specifically, respondents reported their greatest degree of trust in prescribed fire activity and/or information of Pheasants Forever and county Extension, and their lowest trust in the USDA Forest Service. Despite their proximity to public grazingland, where the risk and resource barriers for prescribed burning would be borne by the USDA Forest Service, respondents disagreed that prescribed fire use on the Grasslands should be increased and stated a lack of readiness to conduct prescribed burns on their own ranches. As the primary barriers to prescribed fire use in these communities appear to be negative perceptions, educational materials from trusted sources and opportunities to engage with burning might help explain where and when prescribed fire use would be appropriate on the landscape and aid understanding between entities that would like to use prescribed fire and those who are concerned about prescribed fire use. Full article

Background: The purpose of this study was to assess hydration status via saliva osmolarity throughout a 12-week Fire School in recruit firefighters. Methods: At the beginning (AM) and end (PM) of the workday for 13 weeks (a 12-week Fire School and an additional transition week), saliva osmolarity was measured, recorded, and relayed to each participant in the sample, which included 23 recruit firefighters. The average weekly osmolarity scores were computed for AM and PM. Separate linear mixed-effects models were used to assess the changes in osmolarity at each time of day over the course of the training. Bonferroni-adjusted post hoc tests were used to identify significant differences between weeks while maintaining test-wise error (α = 0.05). Results: AM was significantly lower in week 12 than in weeks 4 and 6, and lower in week 13 than in weeks 2, 4, 6, and 7 (p ≤ 0.035 for all). PM was significantly lower in week 12 than in weeks 3 and 7, and was lower in week 13 than in weeks 1, 3, and 7 (p ≤ 0.019 for all). Conclusion: This study demonstrated that hydration status via saliva osmolarity improved during the last half of Fire School despite those weeks being more physically and thermally challenging. Full article

To investigate public perceptions regarding tunnel fire disasters and optimize the tunnel fire disaster prevention framework, this study takes the emerging social media platform Douyin as a case study, conducting an in-depth analysis of 2133 short videos related to tunnel fires on the platform. A computational communication method was used for analysis, Latent Dirichlet Allocation was used to cluster the discussion topics of these tunnel fire short videos, and a spatiotemporal evolution analysis of the number of videos posted, user comments, and emotional inclinations across different topics was performed. The findings reveal that there is a noticeable divergence in public opinion regarding emergency decision making in tunnel fires, related to the complexity of tunnel fire incidents, ethical dilemmas in tunnel fire escape scenarios, and insufficient knowledge popularization of fire safety practices. The study elucidates the public’s actual needs during tunnel fire incidents, and a dynamic disaster prevention framework for tunnel fires based on social media and artificial intelligence is proposed on this basis to enhance emergency response capabilities. Utilizing short videos on social media, the study constructs a critical target dataset under real tunnel fire scenarios. It proposes a computer vision-based model for identifying critical targets in tunnel fires. This model can accurately and in real-time identify key targets such as fires, smoke, vehicles, emergency exits, and people in real tunnel fire environments, achieving an average detection precision of 77.3%. This research bridges the cognitive differences between the general public and professionally knowledgeable tunnel engineers regarding tunnel fire evacuation, guiding tunnel fire emergency responses and personnel evacuation. Full article

This study aims to examine the socio-economic determinants of human negligence in wildfire occurrences across Pakistan’s peri-urban and rural regions. Increasingly frequent and severe wildfires, driven by climate change, socio-economic conditions, and human negligence, have become a pressing issue. Rising global temperatures and changing precipitation patterns have created drier conditions, while unsafe human activities—such as improper disposal of flammable materials and unsafe agricultural burning—further escalate wildfire risks. These issues are particularly pronounced in Pakistan, where high poverty levels, limited resources, and low education contribute to dangerous behaviors. Weak governance and poor policy enforcement further exacerbate the problem. Data were collected using a cross-sectional survey from 500 participants across five regions. Multiple regression analysis revealed that higher poverty levels significantly increased negligence, whereas higher education and improved access to resources reduced it. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) highlighted the critical roles of local governance, policy enforcement, and community engagement in mitigating wildfires. Correlation analysis indicated an inverse relationship between wildfire risk awareness and negligent behavior. Chi-square tests demonstrated a strong connection between wildfires and migration patterns, underscoring the socio-economic instability caused by these events. Finally, linear regression showed that wildfires significantly impact regional climate indicators, emphasizing the need for integrated management strategies. This study offers valuable insights into the socio-economic factors driving wildfires in Pakistan and provides guidance for developing targeted mitigation strategies. Full article

The frequency of extreme wildfire events (EWEs) is expected to increase due to climate change, leading to higher levels of atmospheric pollutants being released into the air, which could cause significant short-term impacts on human health (both for the population and firefighters) and on visibility. This study aims to gain a better understanding of the effects of EWEs’ smoke on air quality, its short-term impacts on human health, and how it reduces visibility by applying a modelling system to the Portuguese EWEs of October 2017. The Weather Research and Forecasting Model was combined with a semi-empirical fire spread algorithm (WRF-SFIRE) to simulate particulate matter smoke dispersion and assess its impacts based on up-to-date numerical approaches. Hourly simulated particulate matter values were compared to hourly monitored values, and the WRF-SFIRE system demonstrated accuracy consistent with previous studies, with a correlation coefficient ranging from 0.30 to 0.76 and an RMSE varying between 215 µg/m³ and 418 µg/m³. The estimated daily particle concentration levels exceeded the European air quality limit value, indicating a potential strong impact on human health. Health indicators related to exposure to particles were estimated, and their spatial distribution showed that the highest number of hospital admissions (>300) during the EWE, which occurred downwind of the fire perimeters, were due to the combined effect of high smoke pollution levels and population density. Visibility reached its worst level at night, when dispersion conditions were poorest, with the entire central and northern regions registering poor visibility levels (with a visual range of less than 2 km). This study emphasises the use of numerical models to predict, with high spatial and temporal resolutions, the population that may be exposed to dangerous levels of air pollution caused by ongoing wildfires. It offers valuable information to the public, civil protection agencies, and health organisations to assist in lessening the impact of wildfires on society. Full article

The article deals with the issue of teaching fire protection in elementary schools in the Czech Republic. The area of fire protection is one of the key areas that everyone should be familiar with and it is important to teach children how to prevent fires and how to face fires in case of danger. Thus, this article analyses the current approaches of elementary schools to teaching fire protection and compares the data obtained with approaches in teaching abroad. The obtained comparison is complemented by conducting a questionnaire survey, which underpins the current trends and possibilities of modernising the teaching itself. The results are presented in the form of graphs and the design of a potential application based on the presented mobile applications available on common mobile platforms. The conclusions of the study are summarised in the final chapter, which points to the need to expand fire protection education and the use of modern technologies. Full article

Our study leverages insights from the conservation of resources theory and job demands–resources theory to explore the relationship between two types of emotional labor—surface acting and deep acting—and job performance among firefighters. Furthermore, we assess the moderating roles of transactional and transformational leadership within this framework. Using hierarchical multiple regression models, we analyzed data from 1453 firefighters in Gyeonggi-do, South Korea’s most populous province. The findings reveal that surface acting adversely affects job performance, whereas deep acting exerts no significant impact. The relationships between these two types of emotional labor are contingent on transactional and transformational leadership. The policy implications of this study include the need to manage employees’ emotional labor by distinguishing between surface and deep acting as well as the need for efforts and alternatives to facilitate transactional and transformational leadership. Full article

The unprecedented wildfires of 2017 in Portugal, particularly affecting the Centre Region, resulted in more than 100 deaths and numerous other dramatic socioeconomic and environmental impacts. Due to the unparalleled magnitude of these events, the extent of the burned area, and the catastrophic consequences, forest and fire management were placed at the center stage of public and political concerns, receiving wide mass media attention and amplification likely to shape public opinion and influence policy decisions. Through a quasi-qualitative content analysis approach, this article focuses on the media narratives conveyed by the news issued over two years (N = 1056) by eight newspapers of different periodicities and geographical scopes regarding the wildfires of October 2017 in the Matas do Litoral—coastal public-managed forest areas located in the Centre Region of Portugal. The analysis focuses on three main dimensions: the agents and actors mentioned and their power-related positions, the geographical coverage of the newspapers, and the relevance ascribed to emotions and feelings in the media narratives about the wildfires. The results demonstrate the relevance attributed in media narratives to the views of institutional agents and the negligence of local people’s voices. When particularly highlighting the material impacts of the wildfires, media narratives tended to focus less on people’s emotions and other non-tangible issues. The variation in these narratives according to the geographical scope of the newspapers and the publication time of the news strongly points out the need to address the heterogeneous character of the media coverage of wildfires. Full article

Indigenous Peoples have been stewarding lands with fire for ecosystem improvement since time immemorial. These stewardship practices are part and parcel of the ways in which Indigenous Peoples have long recorded and protected knowledge through our cultural transmission practices, such as oral histories. In short, our Peoples have always been data gatherers, and as this article presents, we are also fire data gatherers and stewards. Given the growing interest in fire research with Indigenous communities, there is an opportunity for guidance on data collection conducted equitably and responsibly with Indigenous Peoples. This Special Issue of Fire presents fire research approaches and data harvesting practices with Indigenous communities as we “Reimagine the Future of Living and Working with Fire”. Specifically, the article provides future-thinking practices that can achieve equitable, sustainable, and just outcomes with and for stakeholders and rightholders (the preferred term Indigenous Peoples use in partnerships with academics, agencies, and NGOs). This research takes from the following key documents to propose an “Indigenous fire data sovereignty” (IFDS) framework: (1) Articles declared in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) as identified by the author and specified in Indigenous-led and allied Indigenous fire research in Australia, Canada, and the U.S.; (2) recommendations specific to cultural fire policy and calls for research in the 2023 Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission report; (3) research and data barriers and opportunities produced in the 2024 Good Fire II report; and threads from (4) the Indigenous Fire Management conceptual model. This paper brings together recommendations on Indigenous data sovereignty, which are principles developed by Indigenous researchers for the protection, dissemination, and stewardship of data collected from Tribal/Nation/Aboriginal/First Nations Indigenous communities. The proposed IFDS framework also identifies potential challenges to Indigenous fire data sovereignty. By doing so, the framework serves as an apparatus to deploy fire research and data harvesting practices that are culturally informed, responsible, and ethically demonstrated. The article concludes with specific calls to action for academics and researchers, allies, fire managers, policymakers, and Indigenous Peoples to consider in exercising Indigenous fire data sovereignty and applying Indigenous data sovereignty principles to fire research. Full article

This concept paper explores possible collective identities for a future wildland fire workforce. Taking inspiration from the work of futurists who foresee an end to the dominant fire exclusion/suppression paradigm, and assuming that an emerging fire restoration/resilience paradigm shift replaces it, this paper engages in speculative explorations of the process and product of this paradigm shift with respect to the future collective identities of a workforce conducting ecological fire management. Social constructionist assumptions from symbolic interactionist sociological theory, Gramscian political theory’s concept of hegemony, and new social movement theory’s concept of collective identity all provide the intellectual foundations for the discussion. This concept paper argues that in order to actualize a paradigm shift, more than advances in scientific research or reforms of government policies will be required—the wildland fire community will need to become (or join) a social movement engaged in collective actions. An imaginary social movement, the “Greenfire revolution,” is invented to help illustrate how the selected theories and concepts might apply in the social construction of ecological fire management and the collective identities of its future workforce. Full article

Numerous studies in management and leadership indicate that one’s decision-making style is reflective of one’s leadership style. In the context of civil protection and the fire service, the ability of the fire officers to adopt the best style of decision-making and leadership in each situation represents a critical factor of success. Therefore, the present study was designed to examine the relationship between decision-making and the leadership style of fire officers. For this study, a quantitative method was used, with the application of questionnaires with closed questions. A sample of 346 officers of Portuguese fire stations answered the questionnaire. Correlations between styles are consistent with findings from other studies. Decision-making styles directly influence the leadership styles adopted. Fire officers prioritize people and social concerns, involving teams in decision-making. Research shows positive correlations between participants’ roles, conceptual decision-making, and relation-focused leadership. Higher academic degrees are associated with relationship-focused leadership. Behavioral decision-making mediates the impact of education on leadership styles. Full article

Wildland fire dispatchers play a key role in wildland fire management and response organization; however, to date, wildland fire studies have largely focused on the physical hazards and, to a lesser extent, mental health hazards of wildland firefighting operational personnel, and dispatcher studies have primarily focused on 911 and police dispatchers. Studies of other dispatchers have provided some limited insight into potential strains impacting this workforce, including work-related fatigue, burnout, and traumatic exposure. However, the specific job hazards that are faced by wildland fire dispatchers are poorly understood. In 2023, we conducted a cross-sectional survey of 510 wildland fire dispatchers with questions about their occupational health, general health, and well-being. We used validated screening instruments to measure the rates of anxiety, depression, PTSD, and suicidal thoughts and ideation. Here, we also present the results of mental health and trauma exposure questions that were asked as part of a larger survey. We found that demographic factors were significant indicators of anxiety, depression, and binge/restrictive eating. Our data indicate that rates of anxiety, depression, PTSD, and suicidal thoughts and ideation are significantly higher for both the wildland fire dispatching workforce and other emergency responder populations than those of the general United States population. Full article

In many landscapes worldwide, fire regimes and human–fire interactions were reorganised by colonialism and continue to be shaped by neo-colonial processes. The introduction of fire suppression policies and state-centric property-rights systems across conservation areas and the intentional erasure of Indigenous governance systems and knowledge have served to decouple Indigenous fire-dependent communities from culturally mediated fire regimes and fire-adapted landscapes. This has driven a decline in anthropogenic fires while simultaneously increasing wildfire risk where Indigenous people have been excluded, resulting in widespread social–ecological vulnerabilities. Much contemporary fire research also bears colonial legacies in its epistemological traditions, in the global geographical distribution of research institutions, and the accessibility of research outputs. We report on a two-day workshop titled ‘Fire Management Across Contested Landscapes’ convened concurrently in Nairobi, Kenya, and London, UK. The workshop formed part of a series of workshops on ‘Decolonising Fire Science’ held by the Leverhulme Centre for Wildfires, Environment and Society, UK. The workshop in Nairobi invited diverse Kenyan stakeholders to engage in participatory activities that facilitate knowledge sharing, aiming to establish an inclusive working fire network. Activities included rich pictures, world café discussions, participatory art, and the co-development of a declaration to guide fire management in Kenya. Meanwhile, in London, Leverhulme Wildfires researchers explored participatory research methodologies including rich pictures and participatory video, and developed a declaration to guide more equitable research. There were opportunities throughout the workshop for participants in Nairobi and London to engage in dialogue with one another, sharing their experiences and understandings of complex fire challenges in Kenya and globally. Full article