Firefighters, first responders face unique challenges during the bitter cold

The job of a firefighter or first responder can be challenging on the best of days, but when temperatures dip to -20 C, it becomes even more so.

Warman Fire Rescue Chief Russ Austin says there are a lot of things his crews have to pay extra attention to in the cold, so when they’re called upon to respond to an incident, they can get there in a timely manner.

For his department, Austin says preparations begin well before any fire or emergency.

“We do things like we drain all of the lines inside the truck so that they’re dry,” he said. “And we have to put antifreeze in a spray bottle and spray all of our fittings where the hoses attach and put caps on them so that when we get outside and that humidity hits them, we can actually take the caps off.”

Everything moves more slowly, he explains, from the trucks themselves to the firefighters who have to be more careful moving around with all of their equipment on.

Some of the equipment like air tanks they wear also have to be monitored more closely, he says.

“If you have a firefighter standing outside for half an hour before he goes into a fire in the summer, no big deal. But in the winter, that air in his tank for his breathing apparatus gets really cold,” Austin said. “When you put the mask on, you can have mask failures, which is not ideal when you go inside something that’s burning.”

Austin says any lines that are pulled outside have to be left with water trickling through them, otherwise the hoses and the nozzles will freeze in minutes.

“You’ll get a 250-foot popsicle,” he warns.

If firefighters have to fight a blaze from the outside, they also need to get closer to the scene and adjust the way they spray the flames, otherwise a lot of the water simply evaporates.

And the firefighters holding those hoses need frequent breaks.

“We’ve actually had people outside spraying water on a fire and they get frozen into position,” Austin said. “The mist just gets on their clothes (and) builds up a stream of ice and we literally have to break them off the hose lines and go put them into a fire truck and let them thaw.”

Crew members are rotated out every half-hour so they don’t get frostbite on their hands and feet. Austin says they’re lucky that way — some small volunteer departments don’t have that luxury.

“They might only have a handful of people show up. Those folks are tough. The men and women who do that are in for the long haul and rehab (rotation) isn’t an option for them,” he explained.

Even when they’re not fighting a fire — like when they have to respond to a medical call or vehicle accident — their hydraulic equipment moves more slowly.

“If we have to cut somebody out of a vehicle, all our equipment is hydraulic and/or electric based,” Austin said. “Batteries don’t do particularly well in the cold and neither do hydraulics. The fluid just doesn’t want to move. If we have to do rescue operations, it does take more time.”

With wind chills in the -40s and -50s, he adds that outdoor exposure for anyone for more than a few minutes — including his own crews — remains a concern.

He urges everyone not to try and “be tough” outside when it’s this cold. He recommends people stay indoors as much as possible, and to be safe when it comes to using space heaters or other methods of warming up.