This research project aims to improve the health and safety of rural firefighters by determining, under New Zealand operational conditions, the physiological workload of firefighting tasks. The physiological workload of firefighters was measured by recording firefighters’ heart rate and concurrently measuring the concentration of carbon monoxide (CO) in the breathing zone of the firefighter and the breathing rate of the firefighter. The research measured fire suppression productivity under real fire conditions to provide real data for incorporation into fire management decision support systems. The novel suite of data collection equipment developed by the research team was used to record visual, physiological and geographical information relevant to firefighting. Results from the research provided indications of firefighter physical workload and fire suppression productivity under real fire conditions.

This report will only describe the two complete data sets collected which comprised video, heart rate, gps location and CO. Data collection will continue in coming fire seasons and subsequent data sets will be added for analysis.