PHOTOS: Athletic trainers have been working with recruits in the Greater Flagstaff Region Fire Academy to prevent injuries as they learn the skills needed to be a firefighter. Three athletic trainers — Megan Mulready, an assistant clinical professor at Northern Arizona University, and Lauren Donnelly and Sara Chatham-Carey of the Physio Shop — have been holding sessions two mornings a week with the recruits in this year’s academy.
The academy trains firefighters for five area fire departments. Starting in July each year, the recruits spend 40 hours a week for 11 weeks in hands-on practice of skills they’ll need for a career in firefighting. Those tasks include pulling hose, searching a building, using power tools and technical rescue training such as rappelling and wildland firefighting. The academy also includes three “hot drills,” with real fire inside of a building.
“It’s physically challenging, it’s mentally demanding, it’s showing up every day,” said fire battalion Chief Kyle Denham. “You’re putting a lot of physical work in, which takes a toll on your body and your mind.” Denham said most of injuries he’s seen in the fire academy are back injuries caused by lifting. The majority of a firefighter’s work is medical, he said, which can involve carrying and lifting patients.
Rolled ankles and sprained wrists are also common, as firefighters work in unfamiliar locations with low visibility. “When we’re training, you can’t always see, you’re doing a lot of things by feel, and when you’re in there working, you have a hose on the ground, you have other people in there next to you, and that’s just real life,” he said. “That’s a very potential injury if you’re actually in a fire.”
