‘Gets hot up in there:’ How Milton firefighters battle extreme heat

MILTON, Ga. — The extreme heat gripping metro Atlanta is especially hard on those who have to work in it, including firefighters who are forced to wear heavy turnout gear.

Channel 2′s Bryan Mims was at the Milton Fire Department, where crews are taking extra precautions to protect themselves in temperatures nudging toward 100 degrees.

“Once you put that gear on, it can be wintertime, but once you put that gear on, your body temperature automatically rises,” said Jason Baswell, a Milton battalion chief. “It’s breathable, but a lot of times it traps that heat inside and you sweat up underneath. Yeah, it gets very hot up in there.”

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That’s why during hot weather, Milton firefighters are limited to working 15 minutes at a fire scene before they are required to rest and cool down. Since turnout gear retains body heat, firefighters say it’s essential to have shortened work cycles. They take off their gear and put on monitors to check blood pressure and other vital signs.

“They sit down, we give them water. We actually give them Powerade, Gatorade and we also have little nutrient bars that we feed them,” Baswell said. “We give them a 20-to-25-minute break in between.” If their vital signs are good after the break, they can return to work.

Milton fire crews spent some of Wednesday in a training exercise, which involved suiting up in their turnout gear. Firefighters relied on a phone app that gives them the real-time heat index for their location. If the monitor goes into the red, it’s at a dangerous level and the training exercise would be called off.

“When we do activities such as training in temperatures like what we’re having today, we start early,” said Deputy Chief Richard Bushman. The training exercise wrapped up by early Wednesday afternoon before the intense heat set it.

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Bushman said firefighters can’t wait for the fire call to start thinking about the heat. “Trying to eat healthy, staying physically fit, stay hydrated,” he said. “They’ve got to be prepared on their off days. You can’t wait ‘till the morning you come in and go, ‘Oh, I need to drink some water.’”

Fire crews have some extra help from the Milton Fire Corps, a group of volunteers that responds to scenes and provides firefighters with water, cold towels, fans and other comforts.

Bushman said staying safe in the heat all boils down to readiness. “It’s just like when we run to a call, we’ve got to train, we’ve got to know our equipment, we know we’re going into this, so you’ve got to do all the pre-work.”

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